


Little wonders

by usingmymadeupname



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Meet the Robinsons (2007), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Gen, Genius Peter Parker, Irondad & Spiderson, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Meet the Robinsons (2007) References, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark are Siblings (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker Meets the Avengers, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Precious Peter Parker, Time Travel, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Daddy Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26182573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usingmymadeupname/pseuds/usingmymadeupname
Summary: Peter is a young genius orphan who invents a memory scanner to remember his mom and discover more about his past. When the invention fails and thinking no one wants him, he loses hope. But then he gets a visit from a mysterious young girl named Morgan claiming she is from the future. Then, he ends up stuck in the future when the time travel machine breaks and somehow he needs to fix it. He meets Morgan’s family and things don’t really go as planned because there is a bowler hat guy after him and it all ends with an unexpected twist of fate.Yes, this is a ‘Meet the Robinsons’ AU.
Relationships: Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 75
Kudos: 167





	1. All of my regret

**Author's Note:**

> I have wanted an Iron Dad - Meet the Robinsons AU since forever so now I'm writing it. Titles are from the song "Little wonders" by Rob Thomas from the movie. 
> 
> I hope you guys like it, I obviously changed things from the movie since I wanted to add more Tony & Peter and not just Peter & Morgan so Peter is Tony's biological kid to add some drama hehe. Also, I know very little about medicine so some terms are mostly just for the sake of the story. 
> 
> English isn't my first language so try to ignore my mistakes or tell me about them so I can fix them :) 
> 
> This first chapter is mostly a prologue for context and backstory. The real story will start next chapter.

Tony was sure this had to be a dream. Or a big misunderstanding. Because the woman in front of him could not be pregnant with his kid. Sure, he remembered her… kinda. Her name was Mary, as she had kindly reminded him when they saw each other again -since he didn’t recall her name-. To be fair, he didn’t think he would ever see her again, they slept together -about 4 or 5 months ago, more or less- and then each went on their separate way, to never see each other again, just a casual one nightstand. She was a biologist or something like that and they met at a science convention in which he gave a speech and she had a presentation as one of the speakers, one thing led to another and now she was here, at SI headquarters in California, in a conference room, claiming to be pregnant with his kid. His PA, Pepper Potts is there, for what he is not so sure but he trusts her. And Obadiah is obviously there to hear whatever Mary had to say but also to keep an eye on Tony, to make sure he wasn’t going to do something he’d regret later and that would affect the company or their business.

“I would have contacted you sooner but you are very hard to reach, I almost couldn’t communicate with your assistant to get an appointment to talk about this.”

“And what is ‘this’ exactly?” Obadiah asks, his only concern to get to the point and fix the problem so it doesn’t have repercussions in the company. 

“If you think I’m after your money, I’m not.” Mary says, looking at Tony in the eye “I’m only telling you because I think you have a right to be in his life as his father.”

“ _His life?”_ Tony asks. “It’s a boy?” He didn’t know what his initial reaction was going to be like, but asking about his baby’s gender was not what he had in mind. She slowly nods with a small smile in his direction, confirming they are having a baby boy. 

She is giving him the chance to be a father to his son, to be involved in his life. And Tony doesn’t know what to do. He is not supposed to be a father. This shouldn’t have happened in the first place. His only thought right now is that he will only ruin the kid. He can’t be a parent! He can barely look after himself, let alone another tiny human being. Tony can’t imagine why Mary would think he could be a good father. Doesn’t she know what they say about him? Merchant of death and all that, not to mention all the alcoholism and playboy tendencies. If she doesn’t want his money, then why would she want him in that kid’s life?

Obadiah snaps him out of his mind when he asks Mary a question he hadn’t even thought about in his panic and that could change everything. “And how can we know you are telling the truth? We don’t know how many men you’ve been with. Maybe the kid is not Tony’s, he could be someone else’s”

Well, that was one way to ask it. Way to go Obie. 

“If that is your way of calling me a whore, you can save it.” Mary snaps at him “If I hadn’t been sure I wouldn’t have come. And I’m not here for you to insult me. I haven’t been with anyone else since I found out. It has to be Tony’s. Surely you understand how human reproduction works, don’t you Mr. Stane?” 

Obadiah rolls his eyes and grunts but doesn’t say anything else. She sure knows how to put him in his place, but he does have a point. How can they know for sure the kid is Tony’s? She could be lying. He is about to voice his concerns, without offending her but then she talks as if she is reading his mind. 

“Look, if you are all so concerned about it, once he is born we can perform a paternity test to find out for sure, but I can already guarantee he is Tony’s, there is no one else.” She tells them and she sounds so sure about the whole thing that Tony can’t help but believe her. The question is, what is he supposed to do now?

Obadiah beats him to it. “Alright. Once the baby is born we will perform the paternity test. If Tony is the father then we’ll make sure no one knows about this. You’ll have to sign an NDA to keep the child a secret, he cannot be seen with Tony. The press would have a field day. Maybe we can arrange some child support and-”

“Wait a second, I don’t want your hush money either, and why would it have to be a secret?” Mary asks, starting to sound angry. 

“Because a scandal like this would affect SI” Obadiah nearly screams. Obviously his only concern was the company and their image. “The board of directors won’t be happy about this. This has to be handled with absolute discretion.”

“Tony… you’ve been oddly quiet during this entire conversation. What do you think?” Mary asks him directly. 

Tony doesn’t know what to think. Since she entered the room and gave him the news he’s been on a state of silent panic. When he doesn’t answer immediately she sighs and closes her eyes. When she opens them again, she looks at Tony and says “Can I talk to you?” She asks. “Alone?” She raises her eyebrows at Obadiah and Pepper, who take their cue and stand to leave the room -though Obadiah doesn’t look too happy about it-. “Don’t do anything stupid” He says pointing at Tony before leaving the room. 

Once they are gone, it’s only Mary and Tony and their… fetus? Child? Tony doesn’t want to think too hard about it. He just stays silent, waiting for Mary to say whatever she wants to say. 

“What name would you like for him?”

“What?” He wasn’t expecting her to ask that.

“Well, I’ve been thinking of a few names and since you are the father and this might be the only chance I get to talk to you about it I might as well ask. What name do you like?” She asks, looking genuinely interested in his answer. 

He had never thought of cute baby names, mostly because he never wanted kids, but she was expecting an answer from him so he went with the first one he could think of that wasn’t awful. 

“James.”

She looked surprised at his choice and asked “Why James?”

“I kinda like it. And it’s also the name of my best friend.”

“Hmm.” She was quiet for another moment before adding, “Tony… I don’t even know what else to say.” She rubs her hand tiredly across her face and finally rests her hands on her growing belly. “I know neither of us planned for this, it’s not something we meant to happen but it did and we have to live with it. We are having a baby. The circumstances are not perfect but I want to try this and I want you to try and accept this too. Don’t listen to that Stane guy, he sounds like a jerk. I want you to tell me what you think.”

He takes a moment to answer because he is not sure of the answer himself, but he is sure he cannot be a parent and he has to be honest with her. “I can’t be a father Mary. I just can’t. And you know, my lifestyle is not exactly child-friendly. If you don’t want my money, I don’t understand why you would think that me being in that kid’s life would be a good thing.”

She sighs again and starts rubbing at her belly “I know, but Tony… I have a heart condition… it’s called atrial fibrillation, it’s basically an arrhythmia that causes irregularity in my heartbeat and predisposes me to multiple complications that can kill me. Right now it’s supposed to be under control since I’ve been under pregnancy checks, but what about when it’s not? I can’t bring a child to this world knowing I could leave him at any moment when my heart gives out. It could be in 5 years or it could be in 20, I don’t know, but I don’t want our kid to face it alone. That’s why I need you to be in his life. To make sure he is safe when I can’t.”

Tony is kinda surprised by this revelation. She doesn’t look sick. But her heart might give out any minute. So he thinks about it. Imagines himself looking after a kid with Mary. Then, if she dies, he would be left alone to look after the kid and that would be a disaster. He can already see it. He is not made to be a parent. 

“I’m sorry Mary… but I just can’t. Once the paternity is confirmed, I’ll give you anything you may need to raise him, but I can’t be involved in his life. I would ruin it. He deserves better than me. I trust you’ll do what’s best for him”

Mary looks at him for what feels like an eternity and something in his look must convince her is useless to convince him to at least try. So she stands up and takes a little envelope from her purse and puts it in Tony’s desk. “Goodbye Tony, I hope you won’t regret your choice.” She gives Tony one final look and leaves the room.

Tony’s eyes follow her figure as she walks away, wondering if he should stop her, to tell her he changed his mind at the last second, because maybe, just maybe, everything could be alright, he could try to be there for his kid, maybe it will end in disaster but maybe not, who knows? But before he can even consider calling out for her again, she has already disappeared in the elevator. She is gone now and he knows he won’t follow her. So he stands up, walking towards his desk and opens the envelope she left. Inside there are a couple of pictures from an ultrasound. The first pictures of his kid. He is sure he made the right decision. That kid will be better growing up without him. But that doesn’t mean Tony will forget about him at all, maybe he’ll keep those pictures hidden away, just for him to see. Maybe someday he’ll get to meet his kid. 

◌ ◌ ◌

Mary goes back to work. Just because she is pregnant doesn’t mean she is useless. So after talking with Tony, she decides to disappear from his life, since he is not interested in their kid, she’ll raise him by herself. She doesn’t need him or his money. So she goes back to New York, where her life, work, and research is. 

She met someone at work. Another scientist named Richard Parker. They liked each other but obviously he wasn’t thrilled she was pregnant with another man’s child. But they were taking it slow. One day at the time. She didn’t tell him who the father was, just that he was out of the picture. He seemed to be okay with it so they left it at that. 

4 months later, her baby boy is born in Queens, New York. It’s somewhere in august when Tony gets the news but he doesn’t go to the hospital. He doesn’t even know Mary lives in New York. He lets Obadiah handle most of the paperwork and samples so the test can be performed and a few days later it’s confirmed. He is the father. He has a son. 

Obadiah sent some money for the expenses of the kid but then told him all of it was returned and it really proofed Mary was never interested in his money. A few weeks later, Mary sends him an email –which he only reads because JARVIS told him- telling him she is not going to contact him again, that if he someday wants to be a part of his kid’s life he is gonna have to earn it and look for them. She also sent him an attached photo of their kid, now a few weeks old, with chubby cheeks, big brown eyes, and little hands. He starts to wonder whether he made the right decision or not. Maybe he should stop by and visit her? Meet his kid? But no, that would only make everything worse. He can’t get attached. He is not one to be a parent. It’s not the kind of life he lives. So he just saves the picture in his private server and the ultrasound Mary left him hidden in his lab and thinks about how he doesn’t even know his kid’s name. 

◌ ◌ ◌

Mary loves her baby boy. He was born on August 10 2001 and he was perfect. She named him Peter. She always liked that name, it was the one she always planned to name her son, but she also added the name Tony had suggested, she wanted Peter to have something his father gave him, even if it was just part of his name. He was Peter James Stark. Or that is what his name would have been if Tony had decided to raise Peter with her. 

Richard was with her when she went into labor. He was with her in the hospital the hours that followed the birth of her son. And he was with her, holding Peter, while she slept through her tiredness after giving birth. A couple of days later Richard told her he wanted to raise Peter with her. That with one look at the boy he just knew he wanted to be there for him. It was kinda rushed, they had only been together for a few months but she was happy with him and if he wanted to be a father for her baby boy, he could. In his birth certificate, she decided to put in the name of Peter James Parker. Richard may not be his biological father but he chose to be his dad and Mary wanted him to know how grateful and happy she was about it. 

It was all perfect for the first couple of years. Eventually, they got married. Her heart condition was controlled and hadn’t made an appearance yet. They were both working in research together and they had Peter. None of Richard’s family knew he had a kid. He said he had a brother but they weren’t really close so Mary never asked many details about it. She kept seeing Tony on TV, working for his company with that idiot of Stane. Maybe it was for the best after all, that Tony wasn’t involved. Maybe Peter would have someone to look after him if something happened to her. 

But then, the plane crash happened. Richard had to go away for work. They were supposed to go together but she didn’t want to leave Peter with strangers and she didn’t want to take him with them on a trip for work. So she stayed with Peter, and then Richard left and he died in that accident. She cried for weeks. Peter kept asking where his dad was and she had to explain he wasn’t coming back. 

After months of mourning, she had to think about what to do next. She needed a plan for Peter. She would try to be there with him and keep him as long as possible but she knew that with her heart condition it was just a matter of time until it gave out. She tried her best to keep it under control, with constant medical checks and medication but eventually, her doctor told her that there wasn’t much more they could do. Her heart could stop working any moment, they could try to defibrillate it but sooner or later, it would be useless and she would die. 

She feels more tired every day and knows her time with Peter is limited. She reminds him of how much she loves him every day, even though he won’t remember much of her, she wants him to know he is loved. She takes pictures of both of them so he can see them when she is no longer there. 

She already has a plan in motion. She tried contacting Stark, to tell him what is happening even though he made his decision very clear when she was pregnant, but Stane is the one who answered and said Tony wasn’t interested. She assumed she couldn’t count on Tony so her next idea involved Richard’s brother. She won’t wait until she dies so they can place Peter in a random foster home, maybe with terrible people looking after him. No. She did her research for her boy. She will leave him at an orphanage that she knows about because of Richard. Because even if they hadn’t talked in years, he told her that his brother Ben and his wife May were in charge of an orphanage in Queens, since they couldn’t have children of their own, they decided to look after kids until they found safe families for them. She knew they were good people, she did her research on them and asked people around. That’s how she made up her mind. This was what was best for Peter, even if it broke her heart. She wouldn’t leave him alone. He would be well taken care of.

She changed her will and left all her possessions and money to Peter’s name. She paid for a little storage room to keep the things she wanted Peter to have someday. It wouldn’t be given to him until he was 18 but it was all meant for him. 

A few months after celebrating Peter’s 3rd birthday, she feels her heart starting to give out, the palpitations, the tiredness, she can feel her body slowing down. So she knows she has to go through her plan soon and leave Peter with May and Ben. It’s the middle of spring in 2005 when she leaves Peter –with a letter for him and another letter for Ben and May- in the doorstep of their orphanage in the middle of the night. 

◌ ◌ ◌

After 3 months in a literal hell, Tony is back from Afghanistan. His time there made him realize what little he has actually accomplished in his life. His legacy has to be more than destruction and death. So after Yinsen’s final words to him to not waste his life, he decided he is going to be a father to his kid. He is going to look for Mary and his son. He is going to be what Howard never was. So after building his Iron Man suit, taking down Obadiah, closing the weapons division at SI and giving a press conference in which he says he is Iron Man, he starts looking for Mary and his son. He knows he was born sometime in 2001, so he should be around 6 or 7, but he doesn’t know his name nor his face. He is ashamed to admit he doesn’t even know the birth date of his son but he knows is around August. 

He has been looking everywhere for them. It takes him a couple of days but it isn’t until JARVIS pulls out some hospital records and a death certificate of June 2005 in which he realizes Mary has been dead for 3 years. He remembers her telling him about her bad heart condition. He was such an idiot back then. He let Obadiah and his own fears decide to stay away from Mary and his kid and look where that got him. Mary is dead and he doesn’t know where their son is. 

But then, what happened to her kid? Their kid? There is no record of that. He keeps searching and hacking files to find the place his son ended up after his mother died but he can’t find anything! Not even his name. It’s like someone hid the information on purpose so he can’t find it. His own son is somewhere out there thinking he is alone, that he is an orphan. But in reality, he has a father who just realized he made the worst mistake of his life. 

So he has to keep looking for him. He needs to find his kid.


	2. I cannot forget

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiii,  
> I'm back with more and we'll finally get to know what happened with Peter, we have some MCU context and timeline to follow and the story actually begins now :)

Peter has always been a young genius. 

He’s always been obsessed with science and books and tinkering. For as long as he can remember, he’s always been a curious kid, wondering and searching and trying to explain the world around him. And people have always looked at him funny for it. Not that he really cares but looking back, that is probably one reason why he hasn’t gotten adopted yet. 

His mother left him on the doorsteps of that orphanage when he was a little over 3 years old. She left a letter for Ben and May with his personal information and a bit of money to care for him for a while, explaining that the rest would be given to him when he turned 18, but he didn’t care much about that, because his mother had also left him a letter, explaining that she was sick and she couldn’t care for him properly anymore, saying she loved him but she wanted what was best for him yet she didn’t leave a name or any other information he might try to use to locate her. So he has no idea who she was, what she looked like, or if she even told him the truth in that letter. 

Maybe she just didn’t want him. Just like all those other potential adoptive parents he had met through the years. They kept turning him down and he kept telling himself he was just waiting for the right family. All those other people probably weren’t right for him anyway. But deep down he yearns to have a family. He just wants to be accepted and loved unconditionally. He is still searching for someone who will be just right for him. He is 13, and it’s been almost 10 years of him being in the orphanage and no one was wanted him so far. That has got to be a record. 

He also doesn’t know who his father is. In the letter, his mother never mentioned him so he assumes he didn’t know or didn’t care. But even if his biological family never wanted him, he at least has May and Ben. He has been with them for as long as he can remember. His entire childhood is based on memories with them. And some of his mother… not many to know what she looked like or what they did together but he can tell that he was happy with her, until she left him that is. 

And he also has Ned, another kid at the orphanage. They started as roommates when Ned’s parents died in a car crash when he was 9 and he didn’t have any other close family to take him in so he and Peter have been inseparable ever since, they quickly became best friends, having a lot in common and sharing a lot of interests. They both love Star Wars, they are both science nerds (even if Ned likes computer sciences better and Peter prefers biochemistry and engineering) and they are both really smart so they have a scholarship in Midtown School of Science and Technology, a STEM school in Queens. 

Now, at the orphanage, Peter just came into his room after another failed interview. He had a little tradition when he went to those interviews: He always showed one of his new inventions to the potential family, so he could show them that he was smart and useful, but they never liked it or approved it. Sometimes it was because his gadgets had little malfunctions and ended up exploding (mostly small blasts and sometimes a fire here and there) but some other times they just didn’t want kids taking apart the house’s utensils and messing around, breaking to pieces everything he could find (it appeared that some people just weren’t as tolerant as May and Ben).

So Peter and Ned were the constant kids in the orphanage. Everyone else would come and go but Peter and Ned stayed as roommates –and best friends- for years.

Neither of them has gotten adopted. Most couples wanted cute, smaller children while he and Ned were already moody teenagers no one wanted to adopt. There was a time when Peter would have been included in that small and cute category except for the fact that he was kinda different from your regular kid. Ben had always told him that since they took him in he had a tendency to disarm and break things. From the toaster to the microwave, he’s always worked with anything he could find to tinker with. So whenever a couple was interested in adopting him, they would quickly turn him down once they found out about this habit of his. 

If families didn’t want small, cute kids, then they would want athletic, tall kids, interested in sports, and winning big trophies. They weren’t interested in little, asthmatic nerd kids like Peter. He had always been smaller than average but that, with his interest in science and health issues made almost sure that no family would ever want him. 

So if no one wanted to adopt him, why should he bother? He just kept to himself and his inventions. Each year, at his school’s science fair he would present his inventions and that is how he won the scholarship for Midtown. May and Ben were always proud of him and that was enough. 

Ben always said those other couples didn’t deserve a bright mind and kind heart like his. Growing up, after all those unsuccessful interviews with couples and families who kept turning him own, Ben was always the one to cheer him up, telling him they just hadn’t found the right one. He never said the next one would be better, he knew better than to give him false hope, but he was always there to catch him and he always supported Peter in his tinkering and science interest. May and Ben used to get him books and tools for his birthday and Christmas, and he usually went dumpster diving for parts to mess with, so he wouldn’t take apart any more of the orphanage’s things. 

Peter had a lot of inventions, his room was full of drawings, sketches, plans, and ideas to create and build new things. When he was 5 he built a solar-powered Bristlebot, then his first electric motor, and reed switch motor when he was 6. And when Peter was 7, Tony Stark announced he was Iron Man so Peter, naturally, tried to build and recreate an arc reactor. It didn’t really work but to be fair, he was pretty sure he didn’t have all the pieces and materials needed and they weren’t exactly easy to get, so instead, Peter worked with what he had and built an electromagnet with a battery and conductive wires.

While Ned was also really bright, most of his inventions were on computer coding and programming, writing software, and even helping in creating and developing the school’s website, along with other students. So Peter just kept going to school, inventing things, building LEGOs with Ned, avoiding Flash, and having several –and failed- interviews while looking for someone to adopt him. 

◌ ◌ ◌

A few months after Peter turned 14, their school decathlon team announced a field trip to Oscorp. Ned is super excited about it so Peter pretends to be as interested as he is, but honestly, he prefers Stark Industries anyway. 

So next Friday morning they head to the Oscorp building for a tour of the facilities. It’s mostly boring, just looking around labs and old tech, nothing new or exciting. But while walking around the labs Peter gets lost from his tour guide and classmates and somehow ends up in a lab full of spiders where one of them bits him. He shakes it off and thinks nothing of it, running to catch up with his group, thanking his good luck that no one noticed he was gone. 

It isn’t until he arrives at the orphanage with Ned that he notices there is something very wrong with him. After throwing up most of his dinner and falling into his bed in pain, he asks Ned to bring him a glass of water. 

“I’m not feeling well” Peter complains to his best friend while he helps him sit up to drink the water. He is sweating but feeling cold at the same time and wants to be wrapped in blankets. The mark on his hand where the spider bit him is red and swollen and Peter should probably tell someone about it but he doesn’t want May or Ben worrying about him.

“You feel really hot Peter,” Ned says, touching his forehead. “You probably have a fever and you haven’t stopped throwing up! I’m going to tell Ben and May” He says, standing up and reaching for the door. 

“No!!” Peter tries and fails to stand up so Ned catches him. “Please, don’t tell them! They’ll worry and probably will want to take me to the hospital.”

“And? You should go to the hospital! You are sick” Ned tells him, helping him back into his bed.

“They can’t afford that Ned! They have enough to worry about with all the other kids at the orphanage, besides, maybe it’s just a stomach bug or I just ate something, I don’t know, but it’s not that bad” Peter says, knowing it was probably because of that spider bite, but he doesn’t plan to tell Ned –or anyone really- about it. 

“I think it is kinda bad, I mean, you look terribly pale and sweaty.”

“I feel awful but it’s probably nothing, Ned, seriously, I just need to sleep it off.”

And that is how a couple of days later, after staying in bed all day -pretending to have the flu when May and Ben ask if he is okay- he wakes up with no fever, no pain, and no need for his sunglasses or his inhaler. Ned is relieved he is walking and eating again but Peter is just worried, because later in the day while trying to open a door and ripping the lock off, he discovers he has super strength and enhanced senses. 

The spider that bit him was not an ordinary spider because it gave him new abilities somehow. He can see and hear perfectly, even better than an average human being. And he can stick to things, like an actual spider. And next Monday when Flash approaches him at school he discovers he has a 6th sense to detect danger.

So he comes to the conclusion that he has superpowers. After an accidental spider bite. Typical Parker luck. Who knows what kind of experiments those scientists were making at Oscorp but he decides it’s better if he doesn’t tell anyone. What if someone finds out and they try to experiment on him? He doesn’t know what to do, but it’s clear that he should keep quiet about it and not use those powers in his everyday life. 

It’s cool that he doesn’t need his glasses anymore, his eyesight was terrible anyway and he doesn’t have asthma either, and somehow he has muscles? But he won’t use them to be popular or famous. He’ll just try to control it and keep it to himself.

However, after that spider bite, he has been a little quiet and distant from everyone and a couple of weeks later Ben and May try to talk to him and ask what is going on with him. He understands and appreciates them worrying about his wellbeing but he just can’t tell them, who knows how they’ll react?

So he pretends is just the school work stressing him out, nothing to worry about, and even if May and Ben look like they don’t entirely believe him, they let it go for now. Instead of questioning him further, they tell him the next day there is a couple interested in adoption and they want to talk with him. 

Peter is not really in the mood for any more failed interviews but he sees them so hopeful and excited about it that he agrees. Not because he thinks someone will want him, he already accepted a long time ago he won’t get adopted. But he will do it for them. For Ben and May who have been there for him his entire life. They’ve always tried so hard to find a good family for him but it just hasn’t worked out so far. 

◌ ◌ ◌

It all goes downhill from there.

The next day, the couple, Molly and Colin, arrive to talk with Peter. He can't help but be a little hopeful, even if it has been years and a part of him wants to give up, there is another part of him that is still waiting for a family to call his own. So he takes one of his past inventions to show them. They start talking about his interests, trying to see what kind of kid he is, making small talk, but when they excitedly ask what his favorite sport is, he can already tell this is going to be another failed interview. 

“I don’t really have a favorite sport,” Peter says honestly, watching their faces flash with disinterest, knowing where this is going. Even if he has superpowers he has never really used them so it doesn’t count. “But I do like to invent a lot, I’ve built a lot of things,” He says while pulling out a little alarm robot he built with old toaster parts to show them. 

“What is that?” Colin asks with a frown and then he shares a look with his wife, Molly and Peter knows, he just _knows,_ they already decided they don’t want him. He can imagine what they think of him. He is weird, and a nerd and a loser. 

“Peter… uh, I don’t think” Molly starts to say and Peter can’t hear it. She is going to say they are probably not interested in adopting him. Another rejection. Again. So he just sighs, knowing what is coming, and puts his little invention away, no one in the room is interested in it anyway. 

“It was nice meeting you but uh…” Molly struggles to find the right words to reject him, to say they don’t want him, so he makes it easier for her since he has a little too much experience being turned down. 

“Let me guess,” Peter says bitterly. “You have to think about it.” He doesn’t wait for their reply. He just stands up and leaves the room. He can hear Ben and May walking in the room, and he can hear when Colin tells them how ‘that boy is definitely not right for us’ and Peter just breaks. 

It hurts to hear. Every time. And he is just so angry and tired of all this. He walks out the door of the orphanage and runs. He is not sure where he is headed but he just wants to leave. He wants the hurt to stop. And his mind to shut up, telling him no one wants him. He can hear someone running behind him but he doesn’t stop. Not until his mind registers the voice calling out for him. 

It’s Ben. He ran after him. He is there for him like he always is after a failed interview but this time Peter doesn’t want to hear it. It’s been way too many times and he just doesn’t want to hear it. But he stops either way. When he turns around to face him, Ben just opens his arms for a hug, and Peter can’t help but fall into his arms. “I know kiddo. It’s okay. They were idiots anyway.” He rests his face in Ben’s chest and starts crying. They are in the middle of the street but he doesn’t care. 

He feels his 6th sense acting up, that tingling in the base of his neck, detecting danger around him but Peter doesn’t care right now. He just wants to cry and forget about the rest of the world. So when a man comes running out of a store with a gun in his hands, Peter doesn’t see him. But Ben does, he sees the man who probably just robbed that store. He sees him running and crashing into someone in his rush to escape and get away. He sees him panicking and starting to shoot at the air to make his way through the crowd. And he feels one of the bullets making their way to where Peter is hugging him. 

He doesn’t even have to think about it. He pushes Peter away from the bullet but it hits him instead. Right above his heart. Peter realizes a second too late what is happening. And he screams. “NOOOO!!” He sees the man with the gun looking at him, at what he just did, and then he runs away. And Peter watches in slow motion how Ben slowly loses his balance and falls to the floor, blood staining his shirt. 

Peter is clutching Ben’s hand with one hand while trying to stop the bleeding with his other, he hears someone calling for an ambulance but he can’t focus on anything else right now, because Ben was shot, he was shot to keep Peter safe and Peter could have prevented it, if only he had listened to that danger sense he has or even used his enhanced reflexes, maybe he could have avoided Ben getting shot but now Ben is hurt and he is bleeding and Peter can hear his heart slowing down. 

“Ben… please stay with me Ben” Peter cries while holding onto Ben. “Don’t leave me, please, I love you, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry”

“Peter” Ben whispers with what little strength he has left “You are okay… I love you too kiddo, so much. And May, tell her I love her... It’s okay”

The ambulance arrives but Ben Parker is already dead. 

◌ ◌ ◌

May doesn’t blame him for what happened. But he knows it was his fault. He can’t ever make it up to her. But he can try to use his powers for good. So Peter becomes Spiderman after that, to honor Ben, the one who basically raised him, who taught him everything about kindness and responsibility. He decides to use his powers to help people. The way he should have saved Ben. He creates web-shooters and with a chemical reaction, he imitates spider webs. He is sticking to the ground, helping the little guy, stopping robberies, small things. 

There are a few videos of him on YouTube, stopping a bus and climbing walls. Basically all of Queens knows who the Spider vigilante is but his identity is a secret, no one knows who he _really_ is, not even Ned, since when he falls asleep there is nothing that will wake him up, not even Peter getting inside their room after a late night of patrol.

Then, 6 months later, Tony Stark recruits him to fight Captain America in Germany. 

◌ ◌ ◌

Tony has never stopped looking for his kid. Even after the palladium poisoning and Hammer drones, the Chitauri attack in New York, the extremis disaster with Aldrich Killian, the chaos with Ultron, and every other mess he’s been in since he became Iron Man. 

He had protocols on JARVIS and now on FRIDAY, he hacked into every single possible government institution that might have a lead on where his kid is. But he hasn’t found anything. Not his name, not his face, not his address. At this point, Tony doesn’t even know if he is alive. 

Natasha helped him find information about him and it was thanks to her that he figured out that Obadiah is the reason he can’t find his kid at all. He paid someone to delete all and any information about him. Not just hide it or bury it where no one would find it. No. He made sure Tony wouldn’t know anything about his kid no matter where he looked. All the data of his son was missing forever and Tony had never felt so helpless. 

The only little clues he has are related to Mary. She died in June 2005 in New York. So she wasn’t living in California at all. She didn’t have a kid at the moment of her death so Tony wonders if she gave him up for adoption. He has basically no intel, details, or facts about where his son might be.

He doesn’t know how he will find him but he is sure he is going to someday because he is Tony Stark, he can do the impossible, so he has to keep looking. He only has a couple of pictures of his kid and he regrets not meeting him or getting to know him. He knows it’s his own fault that he is in this mess. But he won’t stop looking for his kid, no matter what. 

In other news, the collapse of Sokovia with Ultron and the accident in Laos involving Wanda destroying a building led to Ross on his ass bothering him about the Accords. The Sokovia Accords. To keep the Avengers in check. 

He is not thrilled about it but he does understand where they are coming from. They’ve been responsible for a lot of destruction even if they had saved the world several times so he just needs the others to play along for a while so he can change and improve the transcript. But of course, Steve didn’t care about any of that, not as long as his war buddy was in danger so now he needed back up. 

That is how he found himself on a rooftop in Queens recruiting Spiderman to help him fight in the ‘Civil War’. He doesn’t know exactly who he is, only that he is young, -probably on college or something- and inexperienced but he can tell he is also enhanced, he has potential, and he needs the support. So he talks to the kid, explains the situation, gives him a suit, and takes him to Germany with the cover story of a Stark Internship. 

And Tony lets him keep the suit, to thank him for his help and to let him do his thing in Queens. The kid somehow manages to deactivate the trackers and protocols in it, and Tony is actually impressed. He is smart too. But after some mistakes from the Spider kid, while trying to catch the flying vulture guy and saving people in the Washington monument, he sees Spiderman on the news after a ferry explosion and he just wants to yell at the kid, what the hell is he thinking? He is going to get himself killed. So he takes away the suit and cuts contact with him. 

But of course, nothing can go his way because the universe apparently hates him. Because the kid still goes out, in his old suit that is basically pajamas to save his plane from being hijacked and stolen. So he regrets being so hard on him, mostly because he can’t find him to return the suit and thank him for helping him out, since he still doesn’t know who is behind the mask. But he is going to find out. 

◌ ◌ ◌

Peter told May he got an internship at Stark Industries as an excuse for going to Germany to fight with Iron Man. After that, he kept the excuse to keep going out as Spiderman since Mr. Stark gave him a fake certificate to “proof” to his guardians it was a real thing, but he hasn’t heard from the man since homecoming when he saved his plane in Coney Island but Peter is okay with that. 

It’s been a while after Ben’s death and Peter doesn’t really care about the interviews anymore. He just shows up and brings one of his random inventions as always and in the end they all turn him down. Again. He is not really surprised but he doesn’t mind as much as before. All he cares about is doing the right thing being Spiderman, helping the little guy, no more going after crazy alien tech, at least for a while. 

So after another couple of failed interviews, Peter goes upset to the roof, he liked being in high places and finds May walking in, trying to do what Ben always did for him.

“Hey, how are you?” May asks shyly after joining him on the roof, following another rejection.

“Just fine. The timer exploded, just a little bit.” Peter explains. “A minor issue in my latest alarm robot. They didn’t want to hear from me after that.” He scoffs “Since I have the potential to blow up their house, they didn’t want me. It’s always the same. Everyone just keeps turning me down”

“It’s not you, we just haven’t found the right couple yet”

He rolls his eyes because that is what they have told him for as long as he can remember as an excuse for not getting adopted. It’s what he has tried to tell himself all these years. He tried to believe it at first. He kept hoping that he would fit in someone’s family someday but now he was realizing he probably never will. 

“124” He mumbles. 

“What?”

“That’s how many adoption interviews I’ve had.” He explains. “124”

“Oh Peter come on, you are exaggerating just to make a point”

He rolls his eyes and shows her the count. He has a little box on the roof marking every single interview he’s ever had in almost 12 years of being at the orphanage. May looks at it but she doesn't say anything else. 

“Plus I’m gonna be 16 soon and you know how hard it is for a teenager to get adopted, I have no future, no one wants me”

“That’s not true Peter”

“My own mother didn’t even want me”

“Stop it, you know she did want you”

“But she gave me up!! She left me here alone!”

“Peter, you know she was not able to take care of you, she was only thinking about what was best for you”

“And what if she was lying? What if she just didn’t want to deal with me? What about my father?”

“Maybe she wanted to keep you but she had no choice, we don’t know the circumstances”

“Yeah right, my real mom is the only person who has ever wanted me,” He says sarcastically because not even she wanted to keep him. 

He starts thinking about how he doesn’t have any answers, he knows nothing about his mom, only that stupid letter saying she was sick and she loved him, that she tried everything to keep him safe, not mentioning anything about his father or why she chose to leave him on the orphanage's doorstep all those years ago or clues about any other family that might want him. “I… wait… she said she wanted me, that she loved me… If she wanted me then, she will want me now”

“What are you talking about?” May asks confused. 

“I have to find her, May, she said she was sick but what if she isn’t anymore? Maybe she is better now and when I find her she will take me back and we’ll be a family again!!” Peter says excitedly. 

“Wow, wow, Peter you can’t do that, no one knows anything about her, she might not even be alive! No one even saw her.”

That’s not true, he thinks. He saw her. He spent the first 3 years of his life with her. Maybe deep within his mind, a memory of her still exists, and maybe with it, he can find her and reunite with her or if she is really gone, he can find a family member that could want him. It’s a long shot but he has to try. 

“Wrong,” Peter says. “I saw her. She is in here,” He says, pointing at his temple. “I just have to remember her”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you go :)  
> Let me know what you think! I'd love to read your reactions or your predictions for future chapters. What do you think is going to happen? What is your favorite part? What would you like to see happen?  
> I'll try to keep it true to the movie but I'll also add some new things to keep the suspense and surprise you.  
> Until next time <3


	3. Let your clarity define you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has a bunch of neuroscience in it and I'm honestly not sure if it's right.  
> I did my research and this was what I could find so let's pretend it is. 
> 
> We have Peter, Tony, AND a bit of Morgan in this chapter so things are about to get interesting 
> 
> Hope you enjoy :)

Tony has been trying to find his kid since he came back and became Iron Man. He tried to find and hack the name and location of his kid by any means necessary but there was nothing to be found in the first place thanks to Obadiah, who hid and deleted all the information that might help Tony find his kid since he would be the heir to Stark Industries and Obadiah probably wanted to make him disappear like he never existed at all. So his name, date of birth, or any other information that might help Tony find him is gone. 

Tony has tried to follow every little lead that he has, even if it’s not much. He looked for orphaned kids named James, in their early teenage years, with brown eyes and dark hair all across New York, then in California and basically the entire country, just in case Mary did name him that after she asked him, but it’s almost impossible to find something useful when he doesn’t have all the information to filter all the possibilities, so naturally, he doesn’t find anything. Maybe Mary gave him up for adoption, maybe James is not his name at all, maybe he is not even in the country and another possibility Tony doesn’t like to consider is that he might even be dead. 

He keeps looking either way. 

But his son is not the only person he hasn’t been able to find. 

After saving his plane with all the Avengers stuff in Coney Island, Spiderman basically disappeared. He was seen patrolling a couple of times but before Tony could find him and talk to him, he was gone again. And now no one has seen him in months. 

It’s concerning, really. Tony doesn’t know much about the vigilante but he does know the kid likes to help the little guy and make a difference, so if he is not going out to do his spider activities, then Tony is left wondering what the hell could be so important for him to stop patrolling like he used to. Maybe it’s Tony’s fault, he discouraged him and took his suit and he just doesn’t want to do this anymore. Maybe he is purposefully avoiding Tony. Or maybe something bad happened to him and Tony wished he could help but he doesn’t know how, so for now all he can do is wait for him to show up again and find him. 

◌ ◌ ◌

With a new goal in his mind and determined to find his mother, he knows what he has to do. Peter starts designing a machine to bring out the memories about his mother that are definitely stored deep in his mind, and maybe also any mentioning of his father or close family. 

He’s been going to the library after school every day. He has done research about neurobiology, the memory process, and the cerebral cortex, reading scientific articles, looking for all the studies and investigations about the subject. He even went to a couple of neuroscience classes at Midtown University. He even managed to sneak on a brain surgery thanks to an old friend of May’s in the hospital. 

He stopped patrolling after a while, his priority being bringing back his memories of his mom. So he put all his efforts into building a memory scanner that could reach the repressed memories of her in his mind. 

There is also a science day coming up at their school, almost like a science fair but since it’s a STEM school there are multiple categories to participate depending on what you are interested in, so Peter can kill two birds with one stone, he can build his school project and also remember his mother in the process.

Ned is obviously entering the competition too but in the computer sciences division, in which they have to develop a programming code and the best ones will have a tiebreaker to win a scholarship to any college they choose, no one really knows what the tiebreaker is so Ned’s been working like crazy to improve his skills.

Peter has worked day and night on his memory scanner. He keeps reading and building and looking for more information. He assembles and disassembles the parts and tries again and again and again. 

For the science day, Peter is going to participate in the engineering category, and for it, he has to give weekly updates on what he is working on, so every week he explains the acquired information and presents an improved version of his scanner. 

It still hasn’t worked just yet but Peter can feel he is close to figuring it out. 

Ned has been helping him build it, mostly being the test subject to try it on and being his assistant with the materials. He has also complained a couple of times that Peter is obsessed about it, working on his scanner nonstop, even at night and he hasn’t been letting him sleep. Peter feels kinda bad about it but he can’t stop. He needs to find his family and this is the only way to do that. 

There is also May, who has been trying to convince him to go to more adoption interviews but Peter is done, he doesn’t want to pretend he’ll belong in any family anymore.

So now, here he is, on his fourth presentation with his science teacher in front of the class. Everyone has something in front of them covering their face in case of another explosion. Let’s just say the first couple of times Peter showed the machine in his classroom, well, the fire alarm was activated and the school was evacuated. But how was Peter supposed to know that was going to happen? 

Today should be good though because he is only explaining how his machine works, he still has to tinker with it to improve some issues, going back and forth to the electronic store to get some supplies, so right now he is just talking, no explosions today, hopefully. 

“Emotional memory is so good that you can relive the moment with all the details.” Peter starts to explain. “Memory of fear can be generated by stimulation of the amygdala and hippocampus, by own experience or by someone else’s but it is detected by one of the senses.” 

Then he explains the process of creating a memory. “There are different types of memory, there is short-term memory and there is long-term memory, which includes declarative memory that relates to events and facts. There is also episodic memory, which are specific experiences of people with a particular time and place in chronological order. And these, being long-term, are one of the last to be lost.” This part is essential to understand how his scanner works. 

“In that declarative memory, there are facts and events, who the person is, the person’s history, decisions, behaviors, goals. You have a certain type of neural circuits that identify a memory in a certain type of direction. Memory is not located at a single point in the brain. Long-term memories can be stored anywhere in the cerebral cortex depending on the type of memory.” 

This part was the hardest for him to figure out since he needed to work with different parts of the brain and connect them to successfully recreate a memory. “The hippocampus is in the temporal lower cortex. Images are stored in the occipital cortex and sounds are stored in the temporal cortex. Each of the regions make their connections specific to each of their memories and they are different for each area.”

When Peter first read about how the brain worked he found it fascinating and wanted to keep reading but by the looks of some of his classmates, he can tell some of them are completely lost by his explanation but he continues either way.

“The hippocampus is related to the memory of fear and emotions, in addition to the consolidation of long-term memory. In the anterior thalamic nuclei, there is also the consolidation of information, for the passage of short-term to long-term memory. And the limbic system influences emotional behavior as well and has effects on memory.”

Even his teacher looks confused now but Peter doesn’t care, all of this information is the explanation on how his scanner works so he keeps on going with his presentation. 

“Sleep is also needed for memory. The brain has some phases when it rests a lot which is called the NO REM cycle and during sleep, the brain makes some transitions to REM, those transitions are due to hippocampal activity. The electrical activity of a brain in REM is very similar to that of an awakened brain so REM is where long-term memory is made.”

His teacher congratulates him on his research and they move on to the next project. Peter doesn’t mind though, he has a lot of ideas to change and upgrade his scanner so he starts writing down his new ideas to try later. 

Back in his room at the orphanage, Peter keeps taking apart and putting together his memory scanner but unrealized to Peter, the constant tinkering still sleep-deprives Ned, who just joins him late at night to keep him company while he builds his scanner since he can’t sleep. 

“Are you sure you don’t need your guy in the chair?” Ned starts to ramble, probably knowing Peter is focused on his project but just wanting to make small talk. “I know you are working in that memory thing but you haven’t gone out to patrol in forever! And I miss being your guy in the chair, helping you from a distance. It’s so cool. Man, I love computer coding. Maybe I was meant to be a hacker or something. But no, I’m better than that. It’s my destiny to be a web developer. Or a computer systems engineer. Or maybe a software application developer.”

Peter hears him talking but it’s not really listening to his friend’s chatter, still piecing together his invention. 

“I didn’t care about winning the competition.” Ned keeps rambling “I never did, but now with that prize?!? I have to win, and then I could go to any college I choose! I wouldn’t have to worry about what I can afford or not. I need to win that competition. I know you’ll probably win the engineering category and Flash will be super jealous as always. But for my coding I’ve been upgrading it, creating something no one else can do, I need to be a finalist to compete in the tiebreaker. I think I can do it.”

“You’ll probably win the computer sciences category too,” Peter says, listening to the final part of his friend’s speech. “You are like the best at coding and programming.” He turns and looks at his best friend in the eyes. “You’ll definitely win too.” 

“Thanks, dude. I don't know what the prize for engineering is but it's probably something super cool. You'll have to tell me about it” Ned replies to Peter who is back to his project, admiring his work, even though is not done yet. 

“They are gonna love this” Peter comments. 

“Yeah. Nothing says adopt me as a weird invention” Ned jokes. 

“I don’t need anyone to adopt me. I just need this to find my mom or my real family. And with this invention, I finally can.”

◌ ◌ ◌

It’s finally their school's science day. It’s been a few weeks and Peter's memory scanner is almost completed. He is just finishing the last touches when Ned’s voice reminds him they are gonna be late.

May is in the hallway, talking with someone on the phone, coffee in hand, probably planning another interview for Peter because she ends it saying “He’ll be so excited you are coming!” and hangs up the phone when Ned comes out of his shared room with Peter.

“So tired” Ned yawns

“Hey, Ned!” May greets him “Good luck at the competition today. I know you’ll do great!” She appears to be in a good mood.

“Thanks, May, I mean, the guys I’m up against are good but not like me, I’m feeling really good about today. I just hope I can stay awake.”

“Don’t tell me, let me guess” May frowns, looks at Ned’s tired face and dark eye bags, and then at Peter’s bedroom door.

“He was up all night working on that memory scanner” Ned explains and yawns again. “But that’s what happens when you have a science genius for a roommate and best friend” He takes May’s coffee from her hand, drinks it, and walks away through the hallway.

May rolls her eyes and goes to talk with Peter. “Alright, Einstein. You owe Ned big time. You barely let him sleep.”

“Yeah, I know. Sorry. But unlocking the secrets to the brain took me a lot longer than I expected, but it’s finished May! I recalibrated the headset through the polar event with the memory center and now the neurocircuits will connect and hopefully it won’t explode this time. I cracked the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex!” Peter says excitedly 

“Really? Okay, wait, what?” May asks confused.

“Now, to test it out” Peter tries to put the helmet on but the alarm goes off. 

“Oh no!” Peter looks at the clock “I’m late, I gotta go” Peter says while grabbing his backpack and his invention. 

“Wait a minute, Peter, I know you have a lot on your plate today but I scheduled an interview for you this afternoon."

“No thanks,” Peter says dismissingly.

“No thanks? What do you mean no thanks?” May says, “Peter, this is about getting adopted, so I expect you to be back here clean, happy, and on time”

“I’m done with interviews May, I’m not gonna be rejected anymore.”

“Listen, Peter, I understand how you are feeling but I’m telling you, you have to get your mind out of the past and look to the future”

“I am, and this is it,” Peter says pointing to his machine “This is my future” He takes his invention and walks away “I’m sorry”

◌ ◌ ◌

When Peter enters the school there is a giant sign at the entrance saying ‘Welcome to science day’. 

Ned is probably already in the computer room getting ready for his competition so Peter walks into the gym to prepare his presentation about his memory scanner. 

It is then announced that the engineering competition will be judged by non-other than Tony Stark himself, since it’s a STEM school, everyone is excited about the news. But when Peter hears about who would be judging him his first reaction was panic since the man might recognize his voice or something from him being Spiderman, this could end terribly wrong, but he also needs and wants his memory scanner to work so he can find his family. So he puts that worry aside and starts to get ready. 

◌ ◌ ◌

“Thank you Mr. Stark for coming here today. I know you must be really busy. It’s an honor to have you as a judge. I know the kids will be very excited.” Principal Morita says while walking into the gym where the engineering projects are located. 

“It’s my pleasure, Principal Morita,” Tony replies, even though it’s not true at all. He doesn’t want to be here but Pepper made him come. “You never know when you’ll find a young mind that can impress me. I could even offer an internship at Stark Industries if someone amazes me.” Tony knew it was very unlikely, but there was always the possibility and that’s why Pepper sent him, to take a look for potential brilliant minds. 

◌ ◌ ◌

Peter has almost everything ready for his presentation, even if he hasn’t tested his memory scanner, he is almost certain that it will work, and he is like 67% sure it is not going to explode again. So he starts scanning the gym, seeing that Tony Stark is indeed in his school, walking around the stands and listening to the other kid’s projects and inventions. At any moment the man can walk into his stand to listen to him talk about his invention and Peter can’t help but be nervous, what if he recognizes him and figures out he is Spiderman? Or what if he doesn’t like his project and thinks he is not good enough? Tony Stark is his hero so even if he doesn’t know who he is, Peter wants to impress the man. 

While glancing through the gym and checking out some other inventions from afar, Peter sees there is a young girl he has never seen before, with brown eyes and dark hair walking around the gym, looking at him. When their eyes meet, she instantly looks away, trying to pretend she wasn’t staring at him, but she is not very subtle about it because she keeps glancing back at him every now and then. 

He frowns since he is not sure what she wants or who she is but Peter can’t really think about her right now. There are more important things going on and if his invention works the way he plans it to, then what could possibly go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeey what did you think?  
> Let me know if you liked it, what do you think is going to happen, what would you like to see, basically tell me your thoughts about this hehe. You can talk to me on Tumblr, i'm the same usingmymadeupname i honestly don't know how to use it yet but i'm doing my best.
> 
> English is not my first language so I hope what I'm writing is making sense?


	4. It’s the heart that really matters in the end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I changed Peter’s age to 15 because of some chronological order for this: Peter was born in August 2001, Mary left Peter at the orphanage in March 2005 and she died in June 2005 and Peter was 3. Then Tony was kidnapped in 2008. Peter gets bitten by the spider and Ben dies at the end of 2015, Peter is 14. Then, Civil war and Homecoming happened in 2016, Peter was 14 and turns 15. This story is happening in April/May 2017. Peter is still 15. Morgan is 10 because I assume she was like 4 or 5 in Endgame plus the 5 years I’m adding to the story when we are in the future. (but 10 in total counting the 5 years of the snap, does that make sense?)  
> Endgame is supposed to happen here but with a happy ending, idk everything will make sense later on.

The girl keeps staring at Peter through the gym like she wants to talk to Peter but isn’t sure how to approach him. Peter has decided to ignore her, he has other things to think about. He has his stand ready for his presentation and while he waits for the judges to arrive at his booth, he wants to try his machine first, to make sure it works perfectly since he didn’t have the time to put it to the test this morning, but before he can attempt to turn his memory scanner on, there is a surprisingly strong hand pulling him underneath the table where his invention is, and when he is about to protest, his eyes land on the same girl who has been staring at him and his invention, and now they are both hiding under the table covered by the tablecloth.

“What are you doing?” Peter demands, wondering why his Spider-sense didn’t warn him about this stranger dragging him into hiding. 

The girl, who doesn’t look older than 10, is staring at him and ignoring his questions and offering no further explanation whatsoever, she begins to interrogate him. 

“Have you been approached by a man in a bowler hat?”

“What? Who are you?” Peter asks, disconcerted. 

“Hey, I’ll ask the questions here,” She says confidently, -for a 10-year-old anyway- and Peter is just so puzzled. 

He feels a little tingle from his Spider-sense and he can’t tell if it is that girl or not. Maybe she is planning something because he is pretty sure he has never seen her at his school.

“Okay…” He frowns, confused. “Goodbye” And starts to slip away from under the table but the girl stops him. 

“Alright, I didn’t want to do this but you’ve left me no choice.” She says seriously. “Special agent Morgan H. of the TCTF,” She says, introducing herself. 

“The what now?” Peter just stares at her, wondering what the hell is going on.

“Time continuum task force. And I’m here to protect you” 

She says it with such a straight face that Peter can’t help but laugh. She actually believes what she is saying, even though she is like 9 or 10, and he is obviously older -not by much but still- and he is Spiderman, and here she is saying she is here to protect him? There is no such thing as a TCTF whatever, is there? How stupid does she think he is?

◌ ◌ ◌

He blends in easily; he knows the place and how to hide in plain sight. He is simply ignored by most people who walk past him. And it’s almost perfect, really. How Peter and the girl are hiding under the table, out of sight, leaving the memory scanner unguarded. Impeccable timing. The machine ready to be sabotaged, just lying there, no one is looking. So, with the help of his little robot, he messes with one of the bolts, cuts one of the wires for the power source, and breaks Peter’s emergency button. There is no way the machine is going to work now and no one even noticed his presence. With his mission accomplished, he silently walks away to hide as if nothing has happened at all and waits.

◌ ◌ ◌

Peter is entirely sure she is lying to his face but he can also tell she is not the reason why his Spider-sense is going off, whoever she is, and whatever her intentions are, she is harmless, or at least she is not on some dark secret mission against anyone here. 

“Can’t you tell I’m not a threat?” She phrases it like a question but there is something more behind her words, besides the fact she can’t possibly be a threat since she is a 10-year-old girl but it’s also like she knows something about him, as if she knew he has a special sense for danger and he can’t help but look at her in suspicion, frowning. There is no way she knows he is Spiderman. Let alone know he has a power that helps him detect danger. No one knows. 

She takes his silence as her cue to continue. “Now, the man in the bowler hat? Has he approached you?”

“No, why?” He answers, deciding to go along with whatever she thinks she is doing. The tingle at the base of his neck is still there like there is something weird going on but he can also tell it’s not because of the girl. 

She sighs and says “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but he is a suspect, on a robbery.”

Right. Peter goes along with her story. “And what did he steal?”

“A time machine.” She answers confidently. 

“A time machine.” Peter deadpans. Now, this is just ridiculous. 

“I’ve tracked him to this time and my source tells me he is after you.”

“And who exactly is your source?”

She ignores his question and he rolls his eyes. 

“And me? Why me?”

“The guys at HQ haven’t figured out the motive just yet.” She answers. “And by HQ, I mean Head Quarters.”

Peter frowns “I know what HQ means.”

“Good. You are smart. That might keep you alive, for now.” And Peter has had enough of this, what the hell is this girl talking about? He is about to leave and ignore the entire conversation when she talks again. 

“Just worry about your science invention and leave the perp to me” She slips out of underneath the table but then turns back. “And by perp, I mean…”

Peter rolls his eyes again “I KNOW what it means.” Saying and following her out of the table. 

He sees her trying to walk around, subtly watching people’s faces, when her eyes land on Tony Stark, who is closer to Peter’s stand than he thought the man was, she stays staring at him for a moment, in awe or curiosity, Peter isn’t sure, but she snaps out of it when another kid runs into her with a project of a solar system and it falls to the ground. 

Peter is about to go help her and the other kid to pick it up but it is then that his science teacher approaches him.

“Hey, Peter. They are about to come to see your invention.” His teacher tells him while looking at Principal Morita who is walking towards him with Tony Stark. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I think so.” He is nervous that Tony Stark might recognize him, after all, his voice is pretty much the same, but he hasn’t talked to the man as Spiderman in months, so hopefully, he won’t recognize him. 

His science teacher leans down before they arrive and asks him “Please tell me this is not going to explode this time?” 

“Uh, I think it won’t?” Peter says without much conviction but then, at the concerned look of his teacher he adds “It’s okay, it’s gonna work this time, I won’t let you down.”

“Alright Peter, I trust you. Good luck.” His teacher starts walking away but then returns and adds “But please, uh, maybe don’t kill anyone?” 

And that is when Principal Morita arrives with Tony Stark. 

“Oh, Mr. Stark, this is Peter, he is one of our brightest students.” Principal Morita says. “He constantly wins the science fair for his inventions. And he is one of our top students, he is also in the robotics club and Decathlon team.”

Peter is pretty sure he has never heard the principal talk so highly of him but then, he is probably just trying to make a good impression on Tony Stark, so he introduces himself, silently hoping the man won’t recognize him, and he starts his presentation. 

“Hi. I’m Peter Parker.”

◌ ◌ ◌

When Tony’s eyes land on the kid, there is some strange feeling about him, as if he has met this kid before. Looking at his face he is pretty sure he has never seen him in his life but with those big curious brown eyes and brown curly hair, Tony is just staring at him because he looks _so familiar_ but he can’t put his finger on it. 

And then he talks. 

Peter Parker. 

When has he heard that voice before? The name doesn’t ring a bell but he can swear he has heard that voice before now, hasn’t he? He is not sure when or where but then the kid starts his explanation on his project, mixing neurobiology with engineering, starts rambling about science and Tony can tell the kid is a bit nervous about this but he is doing a good job at explaining his work. 

“Have you ever forgotten something and no matter how hard you try you just couldn’t remember it? Well, I say that these forgotten memories are not really forgotten but stored somewhere in the brain, deep in our subconscious and I built a machine that can retrieve them.” Peter says. “I call it the memory scanner”

Tony can hear everyone’s reaction, a good part of the students has gathered to see this kid’s invention, there is particularly a young girl, not older than 9 or 10 who looks strangely fond and proud of this kid, and Tony can’t help but wonder if they are related because she looks so much like him, they almost have the same set of brown eyes with the matching brown hair. He is distracted from his inner thoughts when a random teacher asks the kid, Peter, how his memory scanner works. 

“First you put the date of the desired period of time you want to remember into this keypad” He gestures to his machine and then to a helmet attached to it. “And then this laser scans the cerebral cortex where the memories are stored and creates a connection to the other parts of the brain that are involved in recreating a memory, so the machine interprets these neural circuits and the retrieved memory is then displayed on this monitor.” Peter finishes, pointing at the screen. 

Tony has to admit it. He is impressed. This kid is definitely smart and he is way ahead of whatever this high school is teaching him. He can see several notebooks with Peter’s messy notes next to the machine and he knows the kid did his research. That memory scanner must work similarly to his BARF technology and Tony actually wants to talk with this kid and compare notes after his presentation, there is something about him that Tony can’t explain but he can already tell Peter is a potential recruit for SI. 

Peter puts the day May and Ben found him at the orphanage as the date. “Now, I’m going back 12 years, 2 months and 7 days,” Peter says while putting the date on the keypad. 

It’s someday in 2005 so Tony can’t help but ask, out of curiosity mostly. “Why that particular day?” 

“Uh, well, that was the day my…” Peter hesitates. “Let’s just say it was an important day in my life”

“Fair enough” 

“Okay, stand back everybody,” His science teacher says, asking everyone to take a few steps back as a precaution. 

Peter turns on the machine and it starts to light up, the beginning of an image on the screen and everyone gasps, waiting for some big reveal and Peter is so sure it’s about to work that when his Spider-sense warns him there is something wrong, he realizes too late, and out of nowhere the machine starts smoking and some parts fall apart, Peter tries to turn it off with his emergency button but for some reason, it doesn’t work. 

Then, Peter realizes one of the wires is exposed and the turbine comes apart from the machine and it starts flying and breaking some other projects nearby, creating chaos in the room and blowing up some kid’s volcano, activating the sprinklers in the gym. All the students start running towards the exit, trying to avoid the water or the smoke. 

The gym is quickly being evacuated and Peter apologizes to his science teacher “Mr. Harrington, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-” 

“Not now Peter.”

“But I didn’t know it was going to-” Peter tries to explain but his teacher interrupts him.

“Not now” He says, walking away and he can tell he is disappointed. 

There are still some students around, trying to save their projects and even Tony Stark is still in the room, turning off the sprinklers and helping to put out a small fire. Then, there is Flash who is approaching Peter while he is taking off the helmet and trying to turn off the machine.

“Well, look at that Penis. I know your inventions always blow up and nothing you build actually works but this is a disaster, even for your stupidity. You ruined the science day!”

At those harsh words, Tony turns around to see who dared to say that to Peter, who keeps his eyes on the floor and then turns to look at his machine, disappointed and discouraged, while the bully is walking away from him. 

Tony is about to say something to Peter, to comfort him and say he has blown up a lot of his own inventions too and it happens to most inventors, deciding to deal with the bully later, but when he looks at Peter the kid turns around, takes his notes, puts them carelessly in his backpack and runs away. 

“Peter, wait!” Tony sees the young girl, the one he thought was related to him go after the kid so he does the same, following them out of the gym, but unfortunately, he is not so fast because he loses them quickly, before leaving the school, but one of Peter’s notebooks has fallen from his backpack and Tony reaches for it and opens it, reading Peter’s notes and designs, not only of this memory scanner but of multiple other inventions and he has to say, he is impressed at how smart the kid is. 

“Hey FRIDAY,” He asks his AI in his sunglasses. “Do me a favor and look up Peter Parker for me.” 

◌ ◌ ◌

In the commotion and chaos, Peter runs away, and as he predicted, so did the young girl and Tony Stark after him, leaving the memory scanner unguarded once more, so he takes his opportunity and steals the machine to begin the next part of his plan. 

◌ ◌ ◌

He feels guilty and stupid. 

After leaving school, Peter just keeps running away, going back to the orphanage and climbing the building until he is on the roof. He is such a failure. He made a fool of himself in front of the entire school and in front of his hero, Tony Stark. His invention blew up, again and everyone was there to see him fail. He just hopes Ned is having better luck than he is because this day can’t literally get any worse. 

He takes out one of his notebooks with the research he did on it, reading all his investigation for that stupid machine. In anger, he starts tearing out his notebook’s sheets, wrinkling the paper and throwing it behind him. He doesn’t want to see those notes ever again. 

Then something hits the back of his head and when he turns around, he finds the wrinkled piece of paper he just threw away. Confused, he throws it again and sees how that young girl from before, Morgan, comes out from her hideout behind a wall, picks up the paper and throws it towards him again, and hiding again without saying a word. 

“Hey, what are you doing up here?” He asks, this is strange, even for her. 

She doesn’t answer and Peter is getting annoyed. He is not in the mood for whatever the girl wants so he approaches her to tell her to leave.  
“Okay, that’s enough. I know you are there, what do you want?”

“Shhh” She silences him. “You are ruining my cover.” 

“What are you talking about? We are the only ones up here” Peter assures, he would know if there was someone else. Or he would hear them anyway. 

“That is what _he_ wants you to think,” Morgan answers and picks up the paper with the memory scanner design once more. “Now, enough moping, take this back to the science fair, you have a memory scanner to fix.” 

“What? No, stop. Leave me alone.” He has had enough of this girl’s crazy talk for today. 

“Maybe you’ve forgotten, but I’m a time cop from the future,” She says, taking out some random piece of paper. “You should take what I say very seriously.”

Before she can put it away, Peter grabs that piece of paper and reads it “That’s not a badge, it’s a coupon for ice cream. If your age and lying skills didn’t give you away, this does, you are a fake.”

“Uh, okay, you got me” Morgan admits. “I’m not a time cop, but I really am from the future and there really is a bowler hat guy.”

“Yeah, right. Here we go again”

“Seriously, you have to believe me, Peter! He stole a time machine, came to your science day and sabotaged your memory scanner, he ruined it and caused it to malfunction.”

Peter has had enough of this. His only chance of meeting his mom or any of his family was just ruined because he is an idiot and now this girl is trying to convince him she is from the future and there is a guy trying to ruin his life by sabotaging his scanner? No way. “My memory scanner didn’t work because I’m a failure!! There is no bowler hat guy or a time machine and you are NOT from the future. You are just making it up.”

“What? I am not making it up”

“Oh, really Miss Time travel? Then prove it.”

“Uh,” Morgan hesitates. 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Peter starts walking away. “I’m just gonna lock myself in my room for the next couple of years and never go back to school again.”

“Wait, if I prove to you I’m from the future, will you go back to the science thing and fix your memory scanner?”

“Yeah, sure, why not, whatever you say,” He says, rolling his eyes, that girl is not from the future anyway.

It takes him by surprise, Morgan grabbing his arm and pushing him to the edge of the building. He is not sure what she is trying to accomplish but he still fights her and even though he could easily overpower her, he doesn’t want to hurt her, but he doesn’t want to fall through the roof either.

“Hey, stop, what are you doing? Let go of me”

“Okay,” She says, as they reach the border and lets him go, falling through the edge. If Peter had his web-shooters, he could easily catch himself, but he doesn’t have them on him right now and all he can do is fall and try to reach the side of the building to stick to it but then, suddenly he is not falling anymore and Morgan is sitting next to him in a machine that looks like a small space ship and she is pulling out a watch and attaching it to his hand, entering some sort of code into it as they take off. 

“What the hell is going on?” Peter asks, is he being kidnapped by a 10-year-old? “Where are we going?”

“I’m going to prove to you I'm telling the truth, Peter and then you are going back to fix that memory scanner” Morgan answers with a smirk. “We are going to the future”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do we want the hat's name to be Doris like the movie? If you have any other ideas of a name for the hat robot invention thing let me know hehe, now WE ARE GOING TO THE FUTURE :)


	5. Curiosity leads us down new paths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I sort of mixed the time travel machine from the movie - it looks like a mini space ship - with the GPS watch thing that Tony invented in Endgame, I’m not even going to try to understand the timelines or time travel concepts used in Endgame so just pretend that what happens in the past can still affect the future like in ‘Meet the Robinsons’ because otherwise, I will lose my mind. 
> 
> I changed some things about the villain too because if you haven’t figured it out by now, it’s Ned, don't hate me but I needed a close friend of Peter's to feel angry at him and look for revenge but at the same time it had to be someone who was not plain evil, I love him and we all know he is not a bad guy and his actions are just a result of Peter's carelessness, also I think Ned is very smart so, unlike the movie he is not useless, he has his plan and he doesn’t rely on Doris that much but he still needs her. 
> 
> Also, the future we are going to is 2028, 5 years after Endgame, obviously Tony is alive and everyone is happy :)

Morgan activates the time machine, pressing some random buttons and Peter just wonders whether she actually believes it will work, because Peter is a science nerd and he is pretty sure that time travel doesn’t exist. 

That is when he notices that Morgan has a similar watch to the one she attached to his hand and looking at the screen he can see the date of 03/07/2028 and other random numbers Peter can only assume mean some sort of coordinates, then he sees how both watches start beeping with that date, Morgan pushes another button and suddenly there is a bright light flashing around him that forces him to close his eyes.

After a couple of seconds of feeling the light around him disappear, Peter opens his eyes but he doesn’t really see anything much different from before, so he is about to turn to Morgan and tell her there is no way they are actually in the future but then he looks more closely and he sees the buildings around him and the people down on the street and he pauses because that is not how New York buildings look or how the technology people use is supposed to be like. 

There are solar panels on the rooftops and more trees around the city than he ever remembers seeing. There are also holographic screens projecting everywhere, from people’s phones and laptops, he is sure the technology exists but as far as he knew, it was not available for everyone. 

Peter’s jaw drops to the floor and he can see that Morgan has a smug look on her face, knowing she proofed her point and Peter has to give her credit because she was right. There is no way this is still the present. Or his present anyway. Somehow, she managed to successfully take him to the future in a freaking time machine. 

“No way. You were actually telling the truth” Peter says amazed. 

“I don’t want to say I told you so, but I told you so,” She says smiling at him.

“But wait, what is all of this? How does everyone have access to this technology?

“Our d… I mean my dad and my brother have been working on renewable energy and eco-friendly technology, trying to make it more accessible for people, this is only a small part of their inventions and their work.”

“This is amazing! I never could have imagined this.”

“I think you could have” She whispers but Peter still hears her. He is not sure what she means but then he remembers they are currently flying in some sort of time machine and he panics.

“Wait, can’t people see us? We are flying above them! Don’t they care? Do people have time machines lying at home?”

“Of course not, they can’t see us. It has retroreflective panels on the outside. We are good.”

“Right.”

“So, now that I’ve proofed I was telling the truth, you need to go back to the science day thing and fix your machine.”

“Why do you want me to fix it so badly? It’s just a stupid memory scanner, it’s not important. But look at this!” He says, gesturing around him. “This future? This is way better.”

“Peter that memory scanner is important, you have to go back. A lot of bad things could happen if you don’t, there could be terrible consequences for this future”

“What? Of course not, I’m not that important. If I do something or not, I don’t see how it could have major consequences to the future”

“Uh, believe me, it could, so you need to go back and fix that memory scanner”

“No, I don’t need it anymore, I’m not gonna fix that stupid invention, I mean, you have a time machine, wow, you can take me to see my mother!”

“Wait, what?”

“Yes! Of course, I don’t need that stupid scanner, why should I fix my dumb invention when you can take me to see my mom, now! I can actually go back to that night and talk to her, ask her about my family, maybe stop her from giving me up”

“Uh, no, hold on, wait a minute, I’m not taking you anywhere. The answer is not a time machine, the answer is your memory scanner”

“No, it’s not” Peter insists. “I’m sorry Morgan, but you don’t know what my life has been like.”

He stands up and goes to the copilot seat, trying to take control of the steering wheel and to press the date he was left at the orphanage to go back but Morgan tries to stop him and they start fighting over the control of the machine, creating zig zag movements in the air since neither of them wants to let go of the steering wheel. 

“Peter no, stop it”

“No, you stop it, Morgan, let go”

“You let go”

“You can’t tell me what to do”

“Well, neither can you”

“Sure I can, I’m older”

“I don’t care, you can’t go back!”

And that is when the steering wheel breaks, one of the motors starts smoking and they start to fall to the ground. Peter wraps his arms around Morgan so she doesn’t hurt herself once they crash, if something bad happens he can heal faster. 

It’s not as bad as it could have been, Peter knows because he has crashed a plane before, so when the machine stops moving, he helps Morgan out of it and she pales when she looks at the destroyed vehicle. 

“I am so dead,” Morgan says while Peter helps her out of the machine, “I’m not allowed to even _breathe_ near this thing let alone drive it! My parents are gonna kill me! And I can tell you, it will not be done with mercy.”

“Uh, isn’t there like some sort of time machine repair shop or something?”

“No, as I said, not everyone has a time machine lying around at their garage. There are only two time machines in existence and the bowler hat guy has the other one.”

“Oops, but somebody is gonna have to fix it”

“Yeah, great idea!” Morgan pushes Peter towards the machine and crosses her arms. “You are smart, you fix it”

“Are you crazy? I can’t fix this thing; I have no idea how it works!”

“Uh, yes you can, besides, you broke it, you fix it!”

“That’s not fair, we both broke it”

Morgan stays silent, still crossing her arms. 

“Okay, but under one condition: I fix it and you take me back to see my mom”

“What? You didn’t even follow through on our last deal, how can I trust you?”

“Well, you said you were part of some sort of time continuum task force and that wasn’t exactly the truth either, was it? How can I trust you?”

“Hmm, good point”

“So, do we have a deal?” Peter says, extending his had for Morgan to shake, which she eventually does. 

“Okay, we have to take this to my place, through the garage to the lab, let’s go”

◌ ◌ ◌

“Okay Doris, I have Peter’s invention here and I can pretend it’s my own invention, everything is going according to plan,” Ned says to the helping hat, named Doris, while trying to fix what he broke to sabotage the machine in the science day. “I just need to repair what we broke and then we can go to Oscorp or something. This way, Peter won’t have his internship with Stark and his future with him will be over. And maybe I’ll have another chance.”

After a couple of hours, Ned is still trying to fix the machine and make it work, but even if he saw how Peter built it, he still doesn’t know how it works, since his skills have always been with computer sciences and not with engineering. 

“I can’t fix it, Doris. I tried and I think I have some of it right, but I still don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” Ned is about to give up, he doesn’t know what else to do. “I don’t even know how to turn it on. I remember Peter did a ton of research for this. Maybe we’ll need him.” Ned admits, already starting to think of a solution for this. “We can get him and force him to repair it and tell us how to use it. Yeah, we’ll do that. Let’s go find him.”

◌ ◌ ◌

“Once we are in the lab, you’ll have all the tools you need in there.”

“Wait, what about your parents?”

“Well, my mom never really goes in there, unless it’s to force my Dad out when he’s been in there for like, three days on a row so we are safe since my Dad is on a trip with my brother, so no one should bother us, besides that is their old lab, they already have a new one”

“Okay, but I’m going to need some blueprints or something for this”

“Oh, I don’t really have access to those but I have someone who can help us with that, hopefully.”

They arrive at the tower, pushing the machine through the garage, the door opens with Morgan’s fingerprint and Peter realizes that they are in what used to be the Stark tower, or Avengers tower, the one that was sold a few months ago -back in his time - so he asks “Isn’t this the old Stark tower? Why does your family live here now?”

“Uhhh, about that, well, yeah, my parents bought it back, I mean, bought it a while back, so yeah, we live here”

“Right” He looks around the garage and notices there are a lot of cars in there. 

A voice from the ceiling interrupts them “Hello Miss Morgan, I’m glad to see you are back. My scanners show you are uninjured and unharmed but by protocol, I must inform Boss about the condition of the broken time machine. And the current situation with the stolen one”

“Wait, NO, FRIDAY, don’t worry about it, I have uh, a friend here to fix it”

“My scanner does not recognize your friend but it shows amazing similarities to-”

“That is FRIDAY, my dad’s AI” Morgan interrupts “She sort of runs the tower”

“Isn’t that the name of Tony Stark’s AI?” Peter asks, he is pretty sure it is. “I thought he was the only one who had an AI”

“Yeah, but, uh, my dad, he recreated it? And named it that?”

“Why do I have the feeling you are lying to me again? And how does the AI know about the missing time machine?”

“It doesn’t matter. I convinced her not to tell. What matters is that you are here to fix the machine and FRIDAY won’t call my dad, isn’t that right FRI?”

The AI stays silent for a couple of minutes and finally answers “If there is no risk for your safety, then I suppose I don’t have to call Boss if the machine is fixed by the time he returns”

“See? We are all good”

“But I’ll send Karen to look after you” FRIDAY replies. 

“What? No, you don’t have to do that FRI, we are fine, we don’t need Karen”

“Who is Karen?” Peter asks curious, remembering he named his AI on the suit Karen

That is when the doors to the garage opens and a golden robot steps in, welcoming Morgan.

“Hey Morgan, FRIDAY said you needed my assistance with something, what happened with the stolen time machine, did you find it?”

Peter stays openly staring at the robot, because one, who has a fully functional robot walking around the house acting like a human? And two, the voice he just heard coming from the robot, from Karen, it’s exactly the same as the one in the suit Tony took away.

“What? How?” Peter asks looking at Morgan, and then at Karen as if they had the answers to his questions, which probably, they do, but won’t tell him. 

Karen also stays looking at him. And then to the broken time machine. And then at Morgan.

“What did you do?”

And Morgan just smiles sheepishly.

“So you didn’t find the stolen time machine and you managed to break this one as well”

“It will be fixed before Dad gets home” 

“And how will you -oh” She looks at Peter again and it’s like everything just clicks.

“You are actually a real robot! Hi, I’m Peter”

“Hello Peter” Karen greets and then asks Morgan “You brought him from the past?” 

“Is it that obvious?” Morgan says. 

“Just a little, yeah, a lot actually,” Karen confirms. 

“What’s the problem?” Peter asks. 

“If my family finds out I brought you from the past, they will kill me.” Morgan answers. “And they could figure out the, uh, issue with the time machines, which cannot happen. We need to make you look like, well, less like you”

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm” Morgan says, thinking. “I got it. Karen, please bring a cap and glasses, anything you can find. Your hair and eyes are a dead giveaway”

“What is wrong with my eyes and hair?” She ignores his question. He has noticed she has a tendency to do that. 

“And you have to lose the clothes too” She adds. 

“Why?”

“You know what Karen, just bring anything you can find for a complete change of look”

◌ ◌ ◌

Morgan and Peter take the broken machine to the lab while Karen looks for the change of clothes. So when she comes back with all the items, Morgan sends Peter away to change in the bathroom attached to the lab. They tried the sunglasses look but Morgan realized they just made him look like their Dad so she gave Peter contact lenses instead to change the color of his eyes and nerdy glasses to cover them, because If anyone in their family met Peter, they would see the resemblance with Tony and asks questions and she couldn’t have that right now. 

She also needed to change his clothes because the nerdy t-shirts would give him away too, it’s too characteristic of Peter, well, the older Peter to still dress like a nerd so she needs all the help she can get to make this Peter look as different as possible as the older Peter. Her family is full of superheroes and spies so it will be a little hard but no one is supposed to know he is here anyway so they should be good. 

There was another issue. His name. If she randomly brought someone named Peter to her house, there could be questions that could lead to their little secret getting exposed so she asked Peter to introduce himself with a different name. Luckily, he just frowned but made no further questions about it, telling her he could say his name was Ben. 

Like his uncle, she thought. If her math was right, and it always is, Peter’s uncle, the man who raised him, had died a few months before the science day, so it must still be recent for this Peter. 

While Peter is changing, Karen is lecturing Morgan on responsibility. Her Dad and brother decided to build a robot together and then they coded Karen into their creation and that is how she ended up having a body. Karen was Peter’s AI in the Spiderman suit so she obviously recognized him, and apparently, Peter did too but he didn’t ask anything about it. 

“You want me to keep this from everyone else? How can I not tell them? This is really bad, by leaving the garage door unlocked you let the time machine get stolen and now the entire space-time continuum can be altered!!”

“I know! I’m sorry but to be fair, no one is supposed to know how those machines work, so no one should have been able to use it! But everything will be fine, I have a plan”

“A plan that involves your brother from the past?”

“Yeah, but you can’t tell him that. Anyway, we have to keep Peter in this lab, away from everybody so no one can see him and recognize him, then I give him the pep talk of the century - I’m really good at those – and then he fixes the time machine and once his confidence in inventing is restored, I return him to his time and he goes back to the science day, he fixes his memory scanner, eventually, Dad finds him and it restores the space-time continuum.” 

“And what about taking him back to see his mom?”

“I just told him that to buy some time, I know I can’t actually do it”

“This is a really bad idea. It can blow up in your face in a million ways” Karen says again. 

“So you’ve said. Several times” Morgan just rolls her eyes, having ignored most of the lecture anyway. “I got it under control, Morgan Stark never fails.” She says confidently. “But, wait, on the slight chance that I do-”

“On the slight chance? Alright, I’ll run the numbers.” Karen says and she starts calculating the possible outcomes to the situation and stops once she has the results.

“Oh, this is not good”

“What is it?” Morgan asks anxiously. 

“Uh, there is a 98% chance that you won’t exist”

“What? I won’t exist?” She panics for a second but it makes sense. That memory scanner is what made her Dad and brother to get to know each other, if they don’t spend time together, Tony will never figure out Peter is Spiderman and they will never figure out they are father and son, if they don’t realize they are related, Tony will never want to be a father and Morgan won’t exist and once Thanos comes, Peter will be gone with the snap and her Dad won’t have the motivation to create the time machine and save half the population. 

“This is really bad.” She concludes. “But we shouldn’t worry, I mean, Peter will fix the machine and everything will be fine”

“I still think this is a really bad idea”

“You know Karen, ever since Peter made that code to make you sound more human, you have become more annoying while giving me lectures.”

“It’s my job to look after you. Do you really think they won’t recognize him just because he has a cap and glasses?”

“Uh yeah, his most recognizable features are his brown curls which everyone seems to love, and his brown eyes because they look exactly like Dad’s so yeah, if they are covered, we should be good. Besides I didn’t give him Dad’s sunglasses, that would make it obvious, I gave him contacts to change his color and nerdy glasses, since uh, James, doesn’t use them”

“So now we are calling him James? You never call him James”

“I know, but for the time being, we are both referring to older him as James so he doesn’t get suspicions if we call my brother Peter. He can’t hear us right now while he is in the bathroom, Dad made these walls soundproof for him but still, we can’t risk it. So past Peter is Ben and future Peter is James. Got it?”

“Right, but still, with the change of look he looks the same, some years younger, but the same.”

“Most of the Avengers didn’t really know him when he was younger, only Dad did so no one should recognize him. Besides, the only other person who could figure something is going on is Auntie Nat and she is away on a mission.”

“But she could still come back, like your father and brother, and figure out what happened while they were gone.”

“No one will figure it out because no one will know he is even here. He’ll fix the time machine, then I’ll take him back to the science day thing and then everything will be like normal”

“And how are you getting the other time machine back?”

Morgan sighs “I’m working on it. One problem at a time.”

“Okay, and how is Peter, I mean, _‘Ben’_ supposed to fix the time machine? He doesn’t know how it works”

“My Dad taught Peter, I mean, _James,_ how the time machine works so Peter, ugh, Ben can fix it” She is already getting confused with the code names for past Peter and future Peter. 

“Need I remind you, Miss Stark, that boss taught the Peter from this time, not the one from the past.”

“Shh, don’t call me that, just Morgan, but still, he is smart and he can figure it out.”

“There are so many ways in which this could all go wrong”

◌ ◌ ◌

Peter comes out from the bathroom with different clothes, fake green eyes and fake glasses, and a cap to cover his curls. 

“Okay, so, when do we start?” He asks, leaving the GPS watch, along with Morgan’s inside the machine, since those are not broken, he needs to focus on the engine.

“We could start now? We have most of the tools here, I think Karen has some of the blueprints so she can help with that”

“Little boss, your mother is looking for you and wants to see you” FRIDAY announces. 

“Shit.” Morgan looks panicked. “Uh, I have to go.”

“What? You’ll just leave me here?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right back once I’ve talked with my mother, just stay here.” Morgan starts to leave but she turns around again. “Seriously, Stay. Put. There” Morgan says pointing at him and leaving. 

Peter is left in the lab with a broken time machine and with Karen, which he is pretty sure is his old AI in the form of a robot. He doesn’t know how that happened and he is not sure he wants to ask.

“So, Karen, where can I find the tools and blueprints?”

Karen guides him through the lab with the tools and gives him blueprints for the part of the engine he needs to fix but he notices he needs other gadgets. “I think I have what I need here but I’m missing a couple of things, is there anywhere else I could look?”

“There are several other labs on this floor, tell me what you need and I can go get it for you.” Karen answers. 

“Don’t worry about it. I can go.” Peter says, walking out of that lab and into another one, noticing the door is closed and he can’t get in, so he just keeps walking to the next door that leads to a different lab. 

“I would rather you didn’t Peter, I mean, Ben, someone could see you.”

“It’s fine” He says while opening another door and walking into that lab. “No one will- oh- shit” He pales when he sees that lab is not empty. 

Because inside the lab he just walked into there is non-other than Bruce Banner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeess I'm so excited for the future chapters :) we have the Avengers coming next to the story 
> 
> Let me know what you think! I love reading your comments! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. 
> 
> Remember English isn't my first language so have patience with me, try to ignore my mistakes, or tell me about them so I can fix them. <3


	6. Opening up new doors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!! I'm sorry it took so long but I've been busy and I kinda lost inspiration and motivation to keep writing this. But here I am with the next chapter. I hope you enjoy it :) 
> 
> I don’t know how or why but let’s pretend Bruce is still Bruce and not a weird combination of the Hulk. Natasha is alive, obviously. And Loki knows everything hehe

He sees the man in front of him working on something but before Peter can even think of retreating, join Karen outside and get out before he is seen, Bruce Banner, _The Bruce Banner,_ looks up, sees him standing there and talks to him. 

“Uh, hi, who are you? How are you here?”

“Oh, hey, I-I’m Pe- Ben, I mean my name is Ben, short for Benjamin but you can call me Ben” Peter answers, remembering to use the alias instead of his real name like Morgan told him to do.

“Well, hello Ben, do you mind if I ask what are you doing here? How did you get in?”

“Oh it’s just-” Peter thinks of a good excuse to explain his presence here but if _here_ is what he now thinks it is, he might as well tell the truth. “I’m a friend of Morgan’s and she invited me here and I’m helping her with a project but she left to talk with her mom and now I’m here”

“Right”. Bruce Banner answers, sounding like he doesn’t believe him. “It’s that true FRIDAY?”

“Indeed, Doctor Banner,” FRIDAY confirms. “Miss Morgan brought him to work on something in the lab with her”

“Oh, then nice to meet you, Ben.” Surprised the boy was telling the truth since Morgan doesn’t really bring random people over the tower. “How do you know Morgan? You seem older than her”

Peter freezes for a moment while thinking about a believable lie on how he met Morgan that doesn’t include time travel. “Oh I was working on a science project at school and she came to ask me about it, she seemed very interested and she said she needed help with something so I agreed to help”

“She asked you for help? That’s strange, she generally asks her brother for it.” Doctor Banner says, frowning and Peter isn’t sure what to say to that. “But he is not here at the moment so I guess that makes sense” He concludes. 

Peter sighs and relaxes, relieved that Bruce Banner seems to believe him. He knows he is supposed to say goodbye and go back to the lab before anything can happen or someone figures out he is not supposed to be there but c’mon, it’s Bruce Banner, not only is he the Hulk but his work on gamma radiation and nuclear physics in amazing! The nerd in Peter can’t help but talk to him a little about it. 

“This might be a little weird, Doctor Banner but can I just say that I’m a really big fan of yours, it’s an honor to meet you”

“Really? You like the Hulk?”

“What? Oh, well, yeah, I guess” Peter says, “But what I meant is that your work on antielectron collision is mind-blowing and your papers on the creation of energetic photons it’s just so awesome.”

“Oh, thanks,” Bruce says, pleasantly surprised by this boy’s intellect and interest in his work. “You understood all that? You seem a bit young”

“Yeah, I read all of it. I’m a bit of a nerd so-” Peter shrugs. 

Bruce is impressed by this kid. He must be smart if he could keep up with his work and if Morgan was interested in something he did, well, she isn’t easily captivated by random projects so this kid must be something. Bruce can tell he is a little shy and a bit star-struck of being here with him and it’s a nice change of how everyone else reacts after having him around, even after helping save the universe from Thanos. 

It’s endearing, really, how the young boy behaves and he wonders if the others would like to meet him. He appears to be a friend of Morgan so maybe the rest of the team would like to know him. They’ve never seen him before so he must be a new friend of hers and if Morgan is not here to stop him then he should introduce him to everyone, it is his job as her uncle to look after her and maybe embarrass her a little, by introducing his friend to the rest of the family, since Morgan is not one to invite random people to the tower. And if this Ben kid comes back, he is sure Tony and Peter will want to know more about him. 

“Have we met before?” Bruce suddenly asks. “Your voice, I don’t know why but you seem… familiar, I feel like we have met before”

“No, i don’t think so. I would remember” Peter says, sure he has never met Bruce Banner in his life. Back in his time the man is missing, no one knows where he went after Sokovia happened and he is sure that wherever his future self is, he most definitely does not know Bruce Banner. 

“Huh. Well, if Morgan is still not back then what do you say about meeting the rest of the team?”

“The team?”

“Yeah, the rest of Morgan’s family. Some of them are out but I think we can go say hi to everyone, I’m sure they would like to meet you”

“Really? Uh, why?” Peter asks, unsure of what he is supposed to do. 

“Because you are Morgan’s friend” He answers like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. And who knows, maybe it is, but Peter doesn’t have much experience being invited to someone else’s home so he is not sure what the protocol of coming over to a friend’s house is supposed to be. He only has Ned and they literally live together. 

“Uh that is great and I would like to meet everyone,” Peter says, lying a little but he doesn’t want to be rude. “But I really should go” 

“Go? Where?”

“I need to go back to the other lab, it’s just- Morgan left me there and I wasn’t supposed to leave but I was looking for some tools and I ended up in here even though I shouldn’t have but I ended up meeting you which is insane and I’m so honored but I really need to go back Doctor Banner.”

“Just call me Bruce and don’t worry, you can come back later.” Bruce Banner just told him to call him Bruce. He is on a first-name basis with Bruce Banner. He can die happy now. “Let’s go upstairs. I’ll introduce you to everyone.” 

And Peter just follows him out of the lab and into an elevator because how can he say no to Bruce Banner?

◌ ◌ ◌

“So, Ben, you said you are a bit of a science nerd. What is your favorite subject?” Bruce asks him, trying to get to know him a little while they are walking towards the gym, the man saying that there is almost always someone training in there. 

“I love chemistry. But also engineering. I really enjoy building things and tinkering and creating. I have a notebook full of ideas of things that can be improved back at- uh, home” 

“That’s great. If you’d like you can bring it next time when you come over again.” Bruce suggests as they arrive at the gym, Peter realizing it's way bigger than he thought it would be. 

“Sure,” Peter says without thinking, next time? 

Peter can see two men in suits, flying over an obstacle course, and with a closer look, he can recognize The Falcon and War Machine in mid-air, competing to see who will arrive first to the finishing line at the other side of the course. 

They both arrive nearly at the same time, Peter barely catching who was first, but FRIDAY announces the winner. 

“That makes 5 wins for the colonel and still 1 for Sam” FRIDAY declares. 

“Ha, I told you my suit is better and faster,” Colonel Rhodes says smugly. 

“No way man, I’m sure you asked Tony to hack FRIDAY so she could make you win every time” Sam Wilson answers back.

“You are just a sore loser, Sam, just accept I’m better.”

And before another argument can be made, Bruce clears his throat, announcing their arrival. 

“Hey guys, training hard I see”

“Well, it would go better if Rhodes here wasn’t cheating” Sam glares playfully at the man.

“I was not- oh, hi there,” Rhodey says, noticing the young kid next to Bruce. “Who are you?”

“This is Benjamin,” Bruce says, introducing him to the two Avengers. “He is a friend of Morgan’s and while she is gone I’m taking him to meet everyone.”

“Hey, nice to meet you, Benjamin,” Rhodey says while shaking his hand. 

“Just Ben it’s okay. It’s really nice to meet you too” Peter answers, still confused because back in his time, The Avengers are still supposed to be separated because of the Civil War. But who knows what happened in between to change that because apparently Bruce Banner is not missing anymore and The Avengers seem to be back at the tower, together again. 

“I didn’t know Morgan was having someone over today, but it’s nice to meet her friends, she doesn’t usually bring people here,” Sam says, shaking his hand as well.

"We are just working on something together,” Peter explains. 

“Well kid, how would you like to time our race?” Sam asks him while handing him a chronometer. “FRIDAY is cheating to help Rhodes win so I need you to be the referee”

“Uh, sure?” Peter agrees after looking at Bruce and getting an encouraging nod from the man. 

“Alright let’s go”

“On your marks. Get set. Go?” Peter says and they start the obstacle course again, watching the suits fly by, and Peter situates himself in the finishing line to see who arrives first. It is a close call but in the end, Peter is sure it was a tie. They both made it there at the same time. 

“Um, it was a tie. You both made it in 37,89 seconds”

“What?” Rhodey asks displeased.

“YES! I told you FRIDAY was making you win!” Sam cheers. “Next time, I’m winning”

“Uh sorry Colonel Rhodes, maybe I’m mistaken and-” Peter tries to apologize to not upset the man. 

“Call me Rhodey kid. And don’t worry about it.” Rhodey says. “I still won the other 5, even if Sam won’t accept it.”

“Yeah, right.” Sam rolls his eyes. “Thanks, Ben.” 

“Alright guys, this was fun but I’m taking the kid to meet everyone else,” Bruce tells them, waving goodbye. 

“Oh, bye, it was nice to meet you,” Peter says. 

“Bye kid, we’ll see you around,” Sam says, as they start another race. 

◌ ◌ ◌

After talking with her mom to check in and assuring her she was okay, Morgan goes back to the lab to help Peter fix the time machine. 

“Alright Peter, I’m back and we can start working on-” She walks in the lab, ready to see Peter already working on the machine but instead all she sees is the lab empty. “Peter?” She calls for him several times but he is nowhere to be found. “Karen?” And that is when the robot comes out of a corner to face her. 

“What happened? Where is Peter?” Morgan asks the robot.

“Well, you see, I showed him the lab and the tools and he was going to start working on the machine” Karen starts to ramble, she definitely got that from Peter, well her Peter anyway. “But then he said he needed something else and I volunteered to look for whatever he needed but then-” 

“Karen… just tell me”

“He ran into Bruce”

“What?” Morgan starts to panic.

“And then Bruce took him out of the lab to introduce him to everyone else”

“WHAT?!?!?!?” And now she is officially in panic. This is bad. This is really bad. Even if she used a disguise on Peter and even if her Dad and brother are not in the tower, any one of the other Avengers could figure it out with one word out of place and her entire plan would be ruined and she would be grounded for the rest of her life. 

She needs to find Peter now. 

◌ ◌ ◌

“Where are we going now?” Peter asks while Bruce is giving him a mini-tour of the tower. Now realizing the Avengers are somehow back together, he can’t wonder but ask who will he meet next. He hopes is not Mr. Stark, since the man could still recognize him as Spider-Man even if Morgan is making him use a costume and fake name. He also wonders how Morgan knows the Avengers and lives with them, she is probably related to one of them, but who?

“Just to the kitchen. I imagine you must be hungry and I think Steve and Bucky are trying to bake some cookies.” Bruce explains. “Key word trying because neither of them are good in the kitchen” Just as he says that, Peter can sense the burned smell coming out of the kitchen.

“I told you we weren’t supposed to leave them in the oven those extra 10 minutes.” Peter hears someone complaining. “Now all the cookies are burnt and we can’t eat them” 

“I know Buck but I really thought they would be okay. I just didn’t want them to be raw, they didn’t look like they were entirely cooked yet” Someone else answered back. 

“And how would you know if you have never cooked in your life?” The other voice claims. 

“I don’t, and neither do you. Which is why we are trying to make different recipes to learn” 

“And you are still failing at them” Bruce says, walking into the room with Peter, who now recognizes Captain America and the metal arm guy from the airport, the winter soldier guy, Bucky Barnes, he thinks

“Hey, Bruce” Captain America greets them. “We were just trying to make cookies”

“I noticed. I can also see the smoke coming out of the oven” Bruce answered. 

“We almost had it right this time.” The metal arm man answered. “But Stevie here thought it would be a great idea to leave them for more time than necessary. Also the dough tasted funny so I think it was for the best. Maybe they weren’t eatable at all”

“Yeah, we can’t even follow through with the recipe. Wait, who is the kid?” Captain America asks, gesturing towards Peter, noticing his presence. 

“Oh this is Ben,” Bruce says. “Morgan invited him so I decided to introduce him to everyone.”

“Hey kid, nice to meet you, I’m Bucky” The metal arm guy, Bucky tells him. 

“Your metal arm is so cool!” Peter can help but say out loud, “Uh, sorry, I’m Ben, and Bruce already said that. I’ll just shut up now”

“Don’t worry about it kid, I would offer you a cookie but they are ruined anyway” Steve says. 

“You are Captain America,” Peter says dumbfounded, the last time he saw the man was at the fight in Germany, back in his time the man is a fugitive but something must have happened to have him back here and Peter gets to properly meet him. “And Captain America just offered me a cookie” 

“Just call me Steve kid, no need to be so formal, and yeah, we ruined the cookies.”

“I could help” Peter finds himself saying. Apparently, he lost his filter because he keeps talking without meaning to, rambling like he uses to do when he is nervous. “I mean, if you want to, it’s just that my best friend taught me a recipe from his grandmother and it’s really good so maybe it will help?”

Both soldiers agree and they make the dough for the cookies, Peter explaining the steps and ingredients. When it’s done, Peter tells them to leave it in the oven for 15 minutes -no more or less- before they move to the living room where Thor and Loki are fighting over what movie to watch. They stop arguing when Bruce and Peter walk into the room. 

“Bruce, please tell my brother here that I’m choosing the movie. And I want to watch Mary Poppins. Quill suggested it to me.” Thor tells him

“And tell my brother that he chose last time so now it’s my turn,” Loki complains. “I’ve been talking with the young Stark and he recommended a movie called ‘Home Alone’, he said I would enjoy it and I want to watch it” Loki finishes. 

“Um…” Bruce doesn’t seem to know what to do, so instead he ignores both of their requests and introduces Peter since that is why he is walking around the tower in the first place.

“I don’t know buti'm here because I wanted to introduce you to Ben,” He says, gesturing towards the boy. “He is a friend of Morgan’s”

“Hey,” Peter says, waving shyly a hand at them, nervous about meeting two literal gods. “I’m Ben.”

“Hello, young man” Thor greets him with a strong handshake. “Would you like to be the tie-breaker? What movie do you think we should watch?”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know” Peter doesn’t want to choose for them, he might offend one of them if he chooses one and not the other. “They are both really good movies.”

“Pick one or be exiled from the tower” Loki says, crossing his arms. 

“What?” Peter panics a little.

“He is messing with you, Ben.” Bruce assures him. “Aren’t you Loki?”

Loki is staring at him and it starts to make Peter nervous when he says. “I assume I wouldn’t have to,” He says. “But it would be helpful if you chose one”

“Uh- well, as I said they are both really good movies but if I had to choose it would be ‘Home Alone’, I also think you would enjoy it.” Peter finishes. 

Loki smiles triumphantly at Peter and then at Thor who accepts his defeat and asks FRIDAY to play the movie. Before it starts, Loki walks over to Peter and whispers in his ear.

“Good choice, Peter.” 

“Uh, thanks, I guess, I mean it is a really good movie and I really think you’ll like it, wait-” Peter stops, noticing Loki just called him Peter and not Ben. “Why did you- How did you-?”

“I’m the God of Mischief, you couldn’t trick me if you tried,” Loki says proudly. “But I’ll keep your secret. This should be fun,” Loki tells him, winking and walking away to watch the movie. 

Bruce sees Loki walking away from him and approaches him. “What was that about?” 

“Nothing,” Peter says, still surprised Loki knows his real name. “Just talking about the movie, now where to?”

“Well, Nat is on a mission,” Bruce says, walking out of the living room into another hallway. “You can meet her later when she comes back. Wanda and Vision are out on a date. So there is only Clint and Pepper left at the tower”

As if on cue, someone falls from the vents in front of them, stopping Bruce and Peter in his tracks. “Oh, hey guys,” Says the figure that just fell, while standing up as if nothing happened. 

“Clint, what on earth are you doing?” Bruce asks, exasperated. 

“I was following you guys.” The man, Clint, answers. “Since you helped Steve and Bucky make the cookies in the kitchen. I see better from afar and I like the vents.”

“Right.” Bruce rolls his eyes. “So I assume you know this is Ben, Morgan’s friend.”

“Yeah, hey kiddo” Clint shakes his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” Peter says shaking his hand back, “You are Hawkeye, that is so cool” Peter is surprised of meeting so many of his heroes in one day. 

“Where are you going now?” Clint asks

“Since you are already here, I was planning on introducing him to Pepper and then let him go back to Morgan.”

“Oh let’s walk to her office then.” Clint offers to go with them. “So, Ben, how do you know Morgan?” 

“Uh I met her at school because of a project and she asked for assistance in a lab” He repeats what he told Bruce. 

“Huh, well, if you are friends with Morgan and she trusts you to help her then maybe you’ll be friends with my kids too”

“What? You have kids?” Peter asks, shocked.

“Yeah, back in my farm. If Morgan liked you enough to bring you here, then probably my kids will like you too,” Clint offers, “I’ll invite you someday.”

“That is really kind, thank you.” Peter says, grateful for the invitation and consideration. 

“Here we are” Bruce announces, knocking at a door. “This is Morgan’s mom. I think you’ll like her”

“Morgan’s mom?” Peter wonders, they said they were going to meet Pepper, who Peter assumes it’s Pepper Potts, if this is Avengers tower and Morgan’s mom is Pepper Potts and her dad created an AI then Morgan’s father must be-.

Before he can finish his thought, the door is opened and a beautiful woman with strawberry blonde hair opens the door and lets them into her office.

“Hello Clint, Bruce.” She welcomes them. “What are you doing here? Do you need anything?”

“No, we just wanted to introduce you to Ben,” Bruce points at him. “He is a friend of Morgan’s I found in the labs”

“Really? Hi Ben, I’m Pepper Potts. Morgan’s mom. I didn’t know Morgan had someone over, I talked to her earlier and she didn’t mention anything”

“Oh yeah I wasn’t supposed to walk out of the labs, she didn’t plan on introducing me to you.”

“Why? Any friend of Morgan’s is welcome here anytime.” Pepper warmly says. “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Uh, I don’t know if i should” Peter doesn’t know how long he is supposed to stay in the future. 

“C’mon Ben, you’ll love it” Clint encourages him. “Nothing more chaotic than dinner with the Avengers, you must stay”

“Uh, sure?” Peter is sure Morgan is going to kill him now. Is this what having an embarrasing family feels like?

“Then it’s settled.” Pepper affirms. “I’ll see you guys at dinner, I have some meetings and paperwork to finish. Being the CEO of SI is not easy, especially when Tony leaves all his work to me”

“That is just because he loves working on the lab with his kid and he doesn’t want anything distracting him from that” Bruce laughs.

“Oh I know; he loves spending time with him. That’s the only reason I try to not leave him that much paperwork. But I still need his help. When he comes back from his trip he’ll be hearing about it.”

And that moment is when Peter finally puts the pieces of information together. The Avengers, plus Pepper Potts, plus all the technology and labs and AI’s, Morgan’s father being away on a trip and Miss Potts talking about Tony and SI. 

Morgan’s father is Tony Stark. That is her connection to the Avengers. 

Before he can fully process what it means, he walks out of Pepper’s office, saying goodbye to both Clint and Bruce to try and find his way back to the lab and ask Morgan all the questions he has. He walks away in the general direction of what he thinks is the lab, turning in random hallways, about to ask FRIDAY for help when he runs into Morgan. 

“Peter!” Morgan almost yells “I told you to stay in the lab! Karen said you left and then you didn’t come back! I asked FRIDAY where you were and you moved all around the place! First you went to the gym but I went there and you were already gone! Then the kitchen and then the living room and then in my mom’s office. What were you thinking?!”

“I know, I’m sorry but I needed some other tools and Karen said there were other labs so I walked into another one and I met Doctor Banner, Morgan, I met the Bruce Banner!”

“What?!?!”

“And we talked about his work and then he took me to meet the rest of your family and imagine my surprise when I’m introduced to the Avengers. Morgan, why didn’t you tell me this is Avengers tower again?

“Wait, wait, wait, you met my entire family?”

“Oh yeah, and what about the fact that you are Iron Man’s daughter??

“Shit,” Morgan curses. “Come here.” Morgan drags him back to the lab where they are by themselves again. 

“Okay, pop quiz. Who have you met, what have you learned and what did you tell them”

“So I introduced myself as Benjamin, as you told me to, a friend from school who came here to help you with something. FRIDAY backed me up so that helped. And first I met Bruce Banner in his lab and we talked about his work and then he took me to the gym to meet and Sam and Rhodey, who are Falcon and War Machine, then we went to the kitchen where we found Steve and Bucky, or as everyone else knows them, Captain America and the Winter Soldier. They were making cookies and I helped them. By the way, they were sort of acting like a couple, are they…”

“Together? Yeah, sort of, continue”

“Right, then Clint, who is Hawkeye, is married to Laura who lives on a farm with his kids. His best friend is Natasha Romanov, aka Black Widow, who is away on a mission. And then Wanda and Vision are dating and I was told they were out together. Uh and I met Thor and Loki who are adoptive brothers.”

“Yeah, okay, you are forgetting someone”

“Oh, Pepper Potts is married to Tony Stark, aka Iron Man and you are their kid.”

“Right. Yeah, and no one realized you were from the past?”

“Nope. Well I don’t know how but Loki knew my real name but he said he would keep it a secret."

Morgan sighs. “Okay, I guess it could have been much worse. Well done.”

“Thank you.” Peter finishes his explanation of his acquaintances of the day. “Wait, there is someone else missing, who is your brother? Several people have mentioned him already.”

“Oh, well he is, you know, my brother,” Morgan explains vaguely. "He is out with my dad" 

“Yeah, that cleared nothing up.” Peter deadpans. “Who is he? He is older than you but back in my time Pepper Potts and Tony Stark still have no kids. Where did he come from?”

“Uh, all I will say about it is that my dad is his dad but we don’t share the same mom. And that is it” Morgan finishes, unwilling to share more information about Peter to, well, Peter since he is not supposed to know any of that yet. 

“Okay…” Peter leaves that topic alone, for now, Morgan doesn’t seem to want to talk about her brother. “Now, would you like to explain why you didn’t tell me the Avengers were your family? And that you are Iron Man’s daughter?”

◌ ◌ ◌

Ned follows his plan to kidnap Peter and force him to fix the memory scanner so he goes back to the orphanage to take Peter. He goes to what used to be their old room and waits for him in there until the door opens.

“I’ve got you now, Peter” Ned exclaims, ready to take the younger boy with Doris’ help but instead, Ned sees his younger self, sad and depressed after losing the competition. He still remembers that day. It was the day his life was ruined by Peter. 

“I’m not Peter. He is my roommate.” Younger him says. “I’m Edward Leeds but people call me Ned. Who are you and why were you in our room”

“Uh, I’m no one, but I’m looking for Peter, where is he?”

“Try the roof. He is always up there losing his time.” Younger Ned says, mindlessly, like he doesn’t care about anything right now, and he probably doesn’t.

“Of course, why didn’t I think of that” He starts to walk away but then he sees younger Ned staying in the room, lying in bed, looking miserable and he decides to talk to his younger self. 

“So, your competition didn’t go well, did it?”

“No, I fell asleep at the end. I was in the semifinals, about to win, it was so close, but I didn’t finish because I was so tired, I just closed my eyes for a minute but that was all it took. I was disqualified. And now I have no future. My teacher said I had potential but after today he was disappointed in me. I don’t know, maybe I’m not cut out for this, He was right.”

“NO! Everyone will tell you to let it go and move on and try again but it was not your fault. You have to let that anger grow inside of you and let those feelings fuel and guide your actions” Ned advises his younger self, remembering how he felt when he lost his opportunity because of Peter. “Let hate be your ally, and you will do great things, you deserve better than this. Listen to my words Ned, don’t let it go.” And with that, he dramatically leaves out the door and moves towards the roof. 

“What?” Younger Ned just stays sitting in his bed, looking at the door, confused, wondering what the hell just happened. 

Older Ned goes to the roof to find Peter but he after looking around he realizes he is not there. “Where is Peter?? He always used to come here when he was upset.”

Doris and he split to search for him and Doris finds traces of Morgan Stark being there with time travel residue readings, so they must have gone to the future. But that's okay becuase he has his own time machine to after him, a new plan forming in his head and ready to go back to the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is, the Avengers being a family, i love it. 
> 
> There are so many things coming!! I'm excited to write it :)
> 
> Thank you for reading and let me know what you think!


	7. Our lifes are made in these small hours

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it has been a while ups sorry for the wait but I was looking for inspiration to continue the story. 
> 
> You wouldn't believe the number of times I've rewatched this movie to write and finish this.
> 
> Happy reading :)

_“Now, would you like to explain why you didn’t tell me the Avengers were your family? And that you are Iron Man’s daughter?”_

“Oh.” For the first time since he met her, she looks like she doesn’t know what to say. “Well, uh, it’s just, you weren’t supposed to know that.”

“What?” Peter asks, “Why not?”

“Because you are from the past! You are not supposed to know what happens in the future!” She replies. 

“But you were still okay with bringing me to the future just to prove you were right.”

“Yeah, okay, i admit that was a little reckless but I didn’t plan on you staying this long.”

“Anyway, Iron Man’s daughter? That is actually really cool.”

“Yeah," Morgan smiles. "Dad is great.”

“It is so weird to hear someone referring to Tony Stark as a father.” Peter comments. 

“You have no idea,” Morgan replies, keeping to herself that it was Peter the one who made him go all paternal. If only he knew. 

“So your brother… who is he?” Peter asks, still wantinf to know more about him.

Morgan rolls her eyes. “You are not going to let him go, are you?”

“I’m just really curious!” Peter exclaims. “And since he is away i want to know what he is like. I don’t know what all the secrecy is about.”

If only he had any idea. 

“Okay, hmm what can I say about him?” Morgan wonders out loud. “His name is James." That seems like a good start. "He is 21. He is a lot like my dad and he is the best big brother.” She fondly says. 

Peter counts back the years and realizes that whoever this kid is, he is 5 years younger than him, which means that even back in his time he already exists and Tony has never talked about him. It must be a secret then. 

“Why doesn’t no one know about him? In the past, I mean.”

“Uh, well, it’s complicated,” Morgan says, thinking Peter can’t really figure out he is Tony’s son because of the age. If Thanos hadn’t happened, Peter would be 26 right now, but since he was snapped away he is 21 so the math doesn’t add up for them to be the same person since this Peter doesn’t know about Thanos. 

“Moving on.” Morgan changes the subject; it’s better if Peter doesn’t know more than he is supposed to. “Let’s keep going. We have a machine to fix.”

“Yeah.” Peter agrees, taking one of the screwdrivers and positioning himself under the machine to fix part of the engine. “I don’t even know what I’m doing”

“Keep trying.”

“I mean, this stuff is way too advanced for me” 

“Keep trying”

“And what if I can fix this, what are we gonna do?”

“Just keep trying!” Morgan exclaims. “You can’t give up. Quitting is not an option.”

“But I have no clue what to do Morgan.”

Morgan just gives him a look that says she is done with his shit. “Stark Industries, the world’s leading scientific-research and design company working on renewable energy and eco-friendly technology. As you know, both my dad and mom run the company.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Most of these projects and blueprints are my dad’s and my brother’s. They are inventors, mechanics.” Morgan says proudly. 

“Okay?” Peter says, still not knowing where this is going. 

“My dad even invented the time machine.”

“No way, Tony Stark invented time travel?” Peter asks amazed. “I don’t know why I’m surprised if there is anyone who could do it, it’s him.”

“Yeah, a lot of years ago… something kinda bad happened and the Avengers needed to reverse it,” Morgan tells him. “So they needed a time machine but no one could figure it out, they made some mistakes and at first, my Dad didn’t want to do it, didn’t even want to try it.”

“Why not?”

“That’s a story for another time.” Morgan continues, disregarding his question, as usual. “Anyway, eventually he found the motivation he needed, he worked on it all night, creating blueprints and prototypes, trying everything he could think of to make it work. He didn’t give up, even though I know he didn’t want to at first, with the right encouragement, and after hours of failed models and sleepless work, he finally made it. He found a way to safely travel through time.”

“Wait, are you telling me he figured out time travel in one night?”

“Yeap.”

“What? How?”

“Well, let’s just say he had a pretty good incentive, he needed time travel to work so he could recover something important he lost and with that he found the motivation he needed. He worked until he got it. The first working time machine” Morgan explains. “But, because he always thinks ahead and wants to be safe and have a plan in case something happens, he kept working and working and working until he finished another one; a second working time machine. It is a backup. They all need to be synced to the GPS watch i gave you.”

“Okay, so we have one broken time machine here and the other one is…”

“The other one, well, I’m still working on getting it back before my dad arrives. It was stolen and right now it is in the hands of the bowler hat guy.” Morgan finishes. “Pretty amazing story, huh?”

“Yeah, it would be better if you could tell me more interesting details.”

“Oh no. I already told you, you are from the past and you are not supposed to know what happens in the future. That story is all you get.” Morgan says. “Now, are you ready to keep working?”

After what feels like hours of watching blueprints and plans he doesn’t understand and working with screwdrivers, welding metal and fixing wires, Peter is about to be done with the machine. 

“I think that’s it,” Peter says as he finishes it. “I did it,” He says proudly. 

“I never doubted you could,” Morgan says with a small smile. “C’mon, let’s try it.”

Peter gets inside the machine with Morgan and the engine starts. “Nice work Peter.” And Peter is actually surprised he did it. Generally, his inventions need some tweaking before they actually work. He can’t believe he made a time machine work in his very first try. 

So naturally, because the universe hates him, the engine starts to sputter, the motor explodes, the engine fails and the inside of the machine is filled with smoke.

They both get out of the machine, looking at the smoke coming out of it and it looks bad. “Well, you know, this was just the first-” Morgan attempts to reassure Peter but he interrupts her. 

“Don’t say anything.” Peter looks upset with himself. “Just… don’t” 

It is at that moment that FRIDAY announces that Pepper is calling both of them for dinner. 

“Not now FRI,” Morgan says, wanting to deal with Peter feeling bad about this. 

“She says she’ll come to drag you both out of the lab if you are not up in five minutes” FRIDAY replies. 

They both look at the destroyed time machine behind them and come to a silent agreement to listen to her. They don’t want anyone seeing this mess. 

“We better get up there.”

◌ ◌ ◌

There is a very big table in the dining room with a giant chandelier hanging from the roof. With enough space to fit and food to feed the hungry superheroes in the tower. 

Everyone is already there when Peter and Morgan arrive, so they all take their seats with Pepper at the head of the table. Morgan seats herself next to Peter, preferring to be closer to him. 

“Alright people, dinner is served. Sam and Rhodey made the pasta and meatballs.” Clint says. “But our dessert are cookies made by Steve and Bucky so if we all die then we know whose fault it was”

“This time they are not that bad.” Steve defends. “Ben helped us and they turned out eatable. He was a great help.”

Peter is still upset about not being able to fix the broken machine so he doesn’t hear the compliment about his help with the cookies but everyone else keeps talking around them. Morgan notices and she isn’t sure what to do about it since she doesn’t know this Peter, she only knows the older version of him. 

Karen walks in drawing Morgan’s attention to talk so she stands up and goes to the robot. 

“Why is he still here?” She says, gesturing to Peter. “I thought you were supposed to take him back to his time, you know, with the science fair? To fix his memory scanner? And not alter our timeline?”

“Temporary setback. He is just having a bit of a confidence issue. I’m working on it.”

Morgan stands up and sits again as if nothing had happened, just in time to hear Pepper start to ask Peter questions.

“So, Ben. You are a bit older to be in Morgan’s class. How did you meet?”

“Uh” Peter, who had been distracted and is still getting used to being called Ben, hesitates, not ready to be asked things so he has to come up with something, suddenly his mind is blank and he can’t think of an answer. “I’m a-”

“Ben is a transfer student.” Morgan saves him. “From another school. And he was working on a project that I found really cool so I approached him to talk about it and we kinda became friends.”

“Yeah, that’s what happened.” Peter nods along with the story and Pepper looks confused because Morgan isn’t one to randomly approach people like that but he seems like a good kid and kinda adorable so she lets it go. 

“Where are you from, Ben?” Rhodey asks, trying to make small talk and he appreciates the attempt to include him in the conversation but he doesn’t know what he is supposed to talk about or not, they can’t find out that he doesn’t actually belong in this time. He is going to answer Rhodey’s question truthfully, he doesn’t see a problem with that, but before he can speak, Morgan interrupts him. 

“Canada,” Morgan says and Peter frowns. “He grew up there, which is why he is super nice. Just recently moved here, right?”

“Yeah” He agrees but has no idea why Morgan doesn’t want them to know he is from Queens. 

“Anyway, why are you wearing a cap?” Sam asks. “It’s almost dark and we are inside.” 

“Oh, uh, my hair is a bit of a mess” Peter explains, he remembers Morgan telling him that his hair was a giveaway that he was from the past, he has no idea why but he doesn’t want to risk it. 

“Oh, nonsense,” Steve says. “We don’t really care about it.”

“Yeah, take off the cap,” Bucky adds. 

“All right everyone, calm down,” Pepper says to everyone, and then she addresses Peter. “Ben, do you mind? I bet you’ll be more comfortable without it anyway.”

Morgan opens her eyes wide open, trying to find an excuse to not take off Peter’s cap that is hiding his brown curls. She knows a lot of people have similar hair but all the Avengers seem to have a soft spot for Peter’s curls so she is afraid they might figure it out if they see them. 

Before she can think of anything, Pepper is already reaching for Peter’s cap to release his hair but suddenly a flying meatball is thrown across the room and reaches Pepper’s cheek. There’s silence in the room and she immediately turns around to see the culprit but finds apparently innocent gazes around the table. 

“If you think I’m going to let that go, you are sorely mistaken.” She says while grabbing one of the meatballs from her plate and throws it at Clint. 

“Hey!!!” The man complains when it hits him right in his face. “It wasn’t me”

“Yeah, right” Pepper throws another one but this time Clint ducks and it hits Thor instead, who stands up and begins to throw meatballs all across the room, creating a food fight. Soon, they are all tossing and launching their food at each other. Both Peter and Morgan join in the fight, laughing and catapulting their food, when Peter sees Loki’s mischievous smirk across the table and he realizes with a smile that it was him the one who began the fight in the first place, helping him to keep his secret. 

Once everyone’s excitement about the fight died down and they are all covered in sauce, they are all forced to clean up by Pepper’s orders before continuing their dinner. 

“Is dinner like this every night?” Peter asks Bruce who is next to him. He can’t help but think that this is what a family is supposed to be like. He always felt like this with May and Ben but it wasn’t the same because of all the other orphaned kids living with them, but here, you can tell they are comfortable and happy with each other and he wishes he could have something like this. 

“Not at all. Yesterday we had meatloaf.” Bruce answers, giving no further explanation. 

“Alright, time for the second course.” Sam and Clint bring the next dish which includes a weird device Peter has never seen before to spread the sauce on each plate.

Sam and Rhodey start to distribute the dishes around the table while Clint is working on turning on the little gadget but it appears as if it isn’t working. 

“Is everything okay?” Pepper asks when the device starts making weird noises. 

“Yeah” Clint assures, still trying to make it work. “We are just experiencing a little technical problem with this thing.”

Morgan suddenly has an idea. “Just what we needed” She whispers to herself before grabbing Peter by his shoulders. “Hey, no problem, Ben here is an inventor. He can fix it.” 

Peter opens his eyes, panicked. “Morgan, no, you know I can’t.”

“Come on, give it a try.” Bruce encourages. 

“Yeah kid, you can do it,” Rhodey adds. 

“I- I don’t know,” Peter says, unsure. He wants to help them but his inventions often end in disaster, he doesn’t want to embarrass himself and he doesn’t want to blow the Avengers up. 

“You would be doing us a favor, Ben,” Pepper says. “I’m sure you can do it.”

“Yeah, just try your best,” Clint says, winking at him to motivate him and handing him the little gadget. 

“Okay, I guess I can try,” Peter says, still unsure. 

“That’s the spirit, young Ben,” Thor says excitedly 

◌ ◌ ◌

After using the stolen time machine, Ned and Doris are back in the future and they infiltrate the tower to take Peter, using a drone so they can follow him around the house. 

“There you are,” Ned says when he sees Peter walking in the dining room with the girl. “We need a plan to separate him from the others. They are the Avengers; it’s not going to be easy.” Ned tells Doris while she tells him she has a plan. “You have an idea? Are you sure?” But she is already on her way to get in the tower undetected without any explanation. 

“I need to lure him out of the tower or distract the Avengers, we can’t possibly defeat them.” Ned starts thinking about a plan on his own, in case Doris’ idea fails. “Maybe I can bring someone who can divert their attention so we can grab Peter… Yeah, I know what to do.” He finishes the plan in his head, it’s brilliant, really. So he puts de coordinates in the GPS watch to travel back in time to 2012 and bring some old acquaintances of the Avengers. That should keep them busy. 

◌ ◌ ◌

“So, Ben. How is it looking?” Pepper asks after Peter’s been working on the device for a while now.

“I think it’s pretty good, Miss Potts.” Peter replies, feeling better about himself “I recalibrated the dispensing conduits and aligned the ejection mechanism so it won’t plug the exit while you are using it.”

“I have no idea what you just said." Sam says. “But great job, kid.” 

“Okay, that should do it.” Peter finishes it, passes it to Clint, and everyone cheers. 

“That’s great Ben. You are a brilliant kid.” Steve says while Clint turns it on to finish their dinner. At first, it looks like it’s going to work and Peter sighs in relief but then it starts making weird sounds and before anyone can do anything, it explodes, covering them in sauce once more. 

“Oh no.” Peter feels awful when he opens his eyes and sees the mess he created. This was his fault. They must hate him now, think of him as some useless kid.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know it was going to do that! I’m so sorry!” Peter covers his face with his hands, ashamed and red-faced after humiliating himself in front of the Avengers. 

“That was outstanding.” Loki simply says. 

“Truly exceptional.” Thor agrees with a smile. 

“What?” Peter looks up, confused. They are not upset?

“Yeah,” Bucky says “You failed. But it’s okay. All of us here have failed at some point.”

“But we learn from it,” Steve tells him. “We don’t let it keep us down.”

“Tony and the kid are always blowing stuff up in the lab,” Rhodey says. “It’s the fun part of it.”

“You can learn from your mistakes, that’s how science works anyway,” Bruce reassures him. “If we got it right the first time it wouldn’t be much fun.”

“It’s okay, honey,” Pepper tells him with a smile. “You did nothing wrong.”

Morgan is really proud of her plan. Sure, it didn’t go the way she planned it to but it’s even better now because her family is nothing but supportive and Peter can realize that it is okay to make mistakes because he will eventually get it right.

“I propose a toast, for Pe-Ben,” Morgan says while grabbing her glass from the table. She almost said Peter’s name, being distracted in her thoughts. Oops. “And his brilliant failure. So it can lead him to success in the future.”

Everyone raises their glass with a smile and Peter can’t help his ear-to-ear grin. “Guys, this is so nice. You are all so nice. If I had a family, I would want them to be just like you.” He says, honestly. 

Everyone seems surprised by his words but Pepper recovers first and finishes the toast. “Well, then, to Ben.”

They all raise their glass for the toast and Pepper takes the opportunity to ask quietly “What does he mean? If he had a family?” She whispers to Morgan but apparently, some of the others heard and they want to know the answer too because they get closer to listen. 

“Oh, Ben is an orphan.” Morgan answers. 

“An orphan?” Pepper asks, taken by surprise. 

They all gather next to Pepper at the head of the table, leaving Peter on the other side thinking about his own mother who left him. But looks up to see everyone around him and he smiles. This is what he has been looking for his entire life. A family to belong to. He can’t help but think about how lucky Morgan is to have this in her life. 

He doesn’t know what happened in the past, back in his time they are no longer together because of the Civil War but whatever happened to get them here again as a team and as a family must have been big and it also resulted in them being united and happy. 

He is starting to get lost in his thoughts when the elevator suddenly dings, everyone turns around to look who arrived and a familiar redhead steps out into the room. 

“Hey guys, did you miss me?”

“Aunty Nat!” Morgan nearly screams and runs to hug her. Peter realizes that the woman Morgan just called Aunt is none other than the Black Widow herself. She must be back from her mission then. And now he has to explain his presence to a superspy. Great. 

After she finishes her greetings, she turns to Peter who is on the other side of the room and he waves awkwardly towards her. 

“And who might you be?” She asks her, raising an eyebrow. 

“This is Ben” Pepper introduces him. “He is a friend of Morgan’s and a lovely kid. He's been helping her with a project, since Tony and Peter aren't here”

Peter stops at that for a moment, because did she just say Peter? He thought Morgan's brother was named James. What did Pepper mean? Maybe she made a mistake? There is no way they are the same Peter. It must be just a coincidence. Who knows who she was talking about. 

Before he can think much of it, the Black Widow herself is talking to him.

“Then it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Natasha smiles at him, scanning him with careful eyes. “Have we met before though? You seem familiar.” She starts walking in his direction to shake his hand when suddenly his Spidey-sense warns him something is about to happen. At first, he thinks it’s because Natasha has figured him out, that she knows he is not who he says he is and she is preparing to attack him but a cutting sound from the roof catches his attention. 

Natasha also seems to notice it and looks at him with a frown and then they both look up, but before anyone can do or say anything, the chandelier collapses, pieces of glass falling around them and separating Peter from everyone else. 

Barely having time to recover from the chandelier falling and checking that everyone is okay and standing, Pepper grabs Morgan’s hand and is about to run towards Peter to see if he is alright when they all hear a loud explosion outside the window that makes them stop. 

“FRIDAY, what was that?” Natasha asks. 

“It appears we are under attack Miss Romanoff. My scanners detect a small alien army compatible with readings from the Chitauri invasion of 2012 but there is no portal currently opened, I don’t know where they came from.”

“The Chitauri are back?” Bruce asks. “How?”

“Yeah, didn’t Tony get rid of them?” Clint wonders too. 

“I have no idea but we can’t let them destroy New York again,” Steve says, already grabbing his shield and ready to fight. “Let’s go.” 

Most of the team rushes out towards the roof to start fighting while Pepper takes Morgan with her. Peter is debating whether he should fight with them or not, revealing that he is Spiderman but before he can think it through, Pepper screams at him. 

“Ben! Take my hand! Come here”. She reaches for Peter to take her hand so they can go somewhere safe. He makes the decision to go with her, FRIDAY says it’s just a part of the army and there is no portal open so the Avengers should be able to handle it. Besides, if something were to happen, he could be with Morgan and Pepper to protect them. 

Just when he is about to touch her, he feels his Spidey sense warn him of something again when there is another explosion of a wall next to them, making all three of them fall to the ground and before he can stand up to reach for Pepper and Morgan again, he feels like he is being lifted from the ground by one of the aliens and taken outside the tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeey so I obviously want to know what you think of the story and the plot and everything but ALSO I want to know what you guys think of my English? Since it's not my first language I would really appreciate it if you could tell me if there are a lot of mistakes, or if what I'm writing is making sense, or just any comments to let me know what you think :) 
> 
> Have a good day <3


	8. These little wonders

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooo
> 
> I kinda rushed this chapter because I wanted to post it before the year is over and I did it!! Well, at least where I am it is still 2020 but I'll come back to edit it and look for mistakes.
> 
> There are so many things happening in this chapter!! Enjoy :)

Peter feels one of the aliens grab him by his foot, taking him with him while hanging upside down in a weird flying vehicle. He can hear Morgan and Pepper screaming for him and the other Avengers fighting against the army, but he is already up in the air. 

It looks like the alien has plans of taking him somewhere but Peter doesn’t intend to wait and figure it out. He needs to get out of there. But before he can actually think of a plan of escape, he can hear the sound of thrusters in the distance, and his eyes look for the source of it, confused when he sees an Iron Man suit -or something really similar to it since it’s purple-. He has never seen something like it and he wonders who could be inside of it when he hears Pepper’s voice coming out of it, calling for help and then two other suits join them, and Peter can recognize the War Machine armor along with the Falcon suit attacking the alien that took him. 

Now being under attack, the Chitauri alien puts Peter inside the flying motorcycle, letting go of his foot, and starts shooting back at Sam, Rhodey and Pepper but it is clearly outnumbered and about to lose when other aliens notice it too because they come and surround them all, distracting and fighting against Rhodey and Sam but Pepper still has her eyes on Peter, never losing sight of him and letting Rhodey and Sam handle the other aliens while she goes after him, her suit shoots a final blast to the alien and sends him flying away. 

The only problem is that with no one to pilot the vehicle, it loses control and Peter starts falling towards the ground. 

He can listen to Pepper screaming for him and he sees her flying towards him to try and catch him but he knows she won’t make it in time, she is too far away. And he can’t catch himself, he doesn’t have his web-shooters and there aren’t any buildings close to him for him to stick. He is still falling and he knows he is going to crash to the ground and die because he can be Spiderman but that doesn’t make him immortal. 

He is screaming all the way down and when he is about to smash in the concrete, he closes his eyes, waiting for the pain but it never comes. Instead, he feels something levitating him and gently putting him on the ground. He opens his eyes to see green light surrounding him and then he sees Loki walking towards him. 

“Peter, are you okay?”

Still catching his breath, he can only nod to the god, waiting for his heart to slow down. “Yeah.” He finally says. “Thank you, Loki, you saved me.”

Pepper joins him on the ground now, steps out of her suit and hugs him. “Oh my god, Ben, are you okay?”

“Yes, Miss Potts. Loki saved me, it was awesome.”

“Falling from the top of the tower is not awesome!!” She exclaims. “Are you sure you are not hurt?”

“I’m not, but where is Morgan? And where did you get that suit?”

“I left her in a little panic room with Karen in the penthouse. She should be safe.” Pepper answers. “And this is a Rescue suit, Tony made it for me, for emergencies.”

“And this was an emergency?” Peter asks, surprised. The Chitauri might be a threat but the Avengers have dealt with them before. 

“Of course it was! You were taken!”

Even if Peter feels a little bad she was so worried, he also feels touched that she cares so much about what happened to him, even if they had only known each other for a day. The only other person in his life who cares that much about him is May. And Ben when he was alive. 

Suddenly he hears both Loki and Thor yelling at him. “Get down!!” And Peter does, trusting them and kneeling down and taking Pepper to the ground with him, when he lifts his head, he can see another alien was trying to take him and Thor and Loki just prevented it. 

Peter can see The Avengers have fought at least half the little army that appeared because there are much fewer aliens than before. He turns around and he sees Steve, Nat, and Bucky running towards them. 

“Sam and Rhodey are dealing with the ones in the air,” Steve informs them. “Clint is their back up, shooting arrows and exploding their vehicles so they don’t get far. I think we are handling it well.”

“Mostly because there is no portal open, so there aren’t any more aliens coming in,” Natasha says. “Also, the Hulk is smashing every Chitauri creature he sees, so I would say our odds are pretty good.”

“They all seem to be after you,” Loki says, pointing at Peter. “Any idea why?”

They all look at Peter. 

“No, not really.” Peter answers honestly, he has no idea why the Chitauri might want him, he didn’t even have his powers back in 2012. “I don’t even know if they know who I am.” 

“Loki is right.” Thor agrees. “For some reason, they are targeting you.”

“Then we must take him somewhere safe,” Natasha says. 

“Go to the panic room,” Pepper says. “FRIDAY will tell you where it is. Stay there with Morgan. Do not come out until I go there and find you, okay?”

“Okay.” Peter agrees. Mostly because he doesn’t want to get kidnapped by aliens but also because he wants to be with Morgan in case she needs protection.

He walks towards the tower and takes the elevator. It seems to be quiet inside since all of the madness is happening outside. FRIDAY takes him to the penthouse and when he is about to ask the AI where the panic room is, he sees Morgan coming out of the hallway. 

“Peter!” She exclaims the moment she sees him and runs to hug him and check if he is okay. “Are you okay? That alien just grabbed you!!”

“Yeah, I’m fine but why aren’t you in the panic room with Karen? Why did you get out?”

“I couldn’t just stay inside and do nothing!” Morgan complains. “I had to see if you were okay!”

“Morgan, you should have stayed inside, where is safe,” Peter tells her. “C’mon, I’ll stay with you and we will wait for your mom to come and get us.”

Morgan rolls her eyes but goes with him. “Fine. Let’s go.”

She starts walking through the hallway she just came through when an alien crashes through the window and tries to take Peter with him. Peter takes one step forward to protect Morgan and starts fighting and punching it. 

Morgan wants to help Peter but she doesn’t know how to, so she can only stare at her brother's fight with the creature when she sees a tiny little hat above the alien’s head. It’s so small she could have missed it if she hadn’t been looking at it for so long. 

Anyone who didn’t know any better could have thought it was part of the alien but Morgan had seen that hat before. She recognized it. The bowler hat guy was behind this. And if he was trying to kidnap Peter, then whatever he was planning could not be good. 

Before she can warn Peter who is truly behind this attack, they both hear more Chitauri coming through the broken window, just when Peter had defeated the alien, he turns around and he sees more aliens coming through.

“Damn it!” Peter shouts. “FRIDAY, could you please warn Miss Potts about the situation up here?”

He doesn’t wait for a response. He pushes Morgan aside and starts fighting. It’s truly impressive, looking at him in battle like that. She gets distracted staring at him when an alien aims a weapon towards her. She ducks and screams and that gets Peter’s attention. 

When he realizes they are trying to hurt Morgan, he goes after them and breaks them in half, using his super strength to destroy and crush them. He doesn’t care that Morgan must now realize that he is enhanced. He has to keep her safe. He finishes all of them and then Morgan and Peter are left in the room with the broken pieces of part of the Chitauri army. 

“Morgan.” Peter rushes to her side. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She assures him. “You just-” She doesn’t finish her sentence. She just points at the defeated aliens on the floor. “It was incredible.”

“Uh, yeah, about that-” Peter starts to think of an explanation for his super strength but she interrupts him.

“Peter, it’s okay. I- uh, I know you are Spiderman.”

Peter opens his eyes wide open. “What? How?”

Morgan is about to answer when Karen walks out of the hallway and then the elevator dings and Natasha comes out of it and into the room, looking at the aliens on the floor. 

“Morgan! Are you okay?” Karen asks, walking towards her. “Why did you leave the panic room? 

“I’m fine.” Morgan says, “I went to find Peter.”

“I thought you were in danger,” Natasha says, scanning the room and then looking at them both. “FRIDAY sent me, but it appears you had it handled.” She then looks at Peter in the eye, gesturing to the room. “How did you do that?” 

But before Peter has to think of an explanation on how he defeated the aliens, Miss Potts comes in through the broken window in the Rescue suit and the rest of the Avengers follow soon after her.

The fight is over, everyone is gathered in the destroyed penthouse and they stare at the destroyed Chitauri on the floor, confused, not knowing who did it.  
“Are you both alright? Is anyone hurt?” Pepper asks, stepping out of the suit. 

“We are good Mom,” Morgan assures her while her mom hugs her tight. 

“It was awesome.” Peter excitedly screams, still having an adrenaline rush. “Did you just see that? We just fought aliens! Man, it was so cool, Mom.” Peter says, not noticing his mistake until it’s too late. He just called Pepper Potts, Mom. 

He can feel his cheeks blushing red and his eyes go wide in surprise and embarrassment, and he is about to apologize when Pepper looks at him with soft eyes and a smile on her face and she reaches to hug Peter too, like she did with Morgan, and kisses him on the cheek. 

“I’m really happy you are safe,” Pepper says. 

“You almost got kidnapped by aliens.” Clint deadpans, referring to his last comment. “It was not exactly cool.” 

“But did you see how we took them down?” Peter says, still excited and grateful for the change of topic after his mistake. “We fought aliens and won! That was so fun!”

“Yeah, about that.” Natasha says. “How did you fight them? There was no one else here when I arrived, so you must have been the one to tear them apart to save Morgan. How are you that strong?”

“Oh.” Peter says. “About that- I, well… I might be enhanced?” 

All the Avengers are left speechless. They are all looking at each other, looking for answers but before they can start to interrogate him and asks questions Peter shouldn’t answer, Morgan interrupts. 

“It’s a secret.” Morgan says. “No one knows. He doesn’t like to talk about it. He has super strength.”

“And how did that happen? How are you enhanced? Did someone experiment on you?” Bruce immediately asks. 

“Oh no, it was nothing like that,” Peter assures. “It’s a long story but uh, it was an accident. No one did anything to me.”

They all relax at that. They are all exhausted after the fight and more questions can be asked later. Everyone starts to talk around the living room, arranging a team meeting for later and preparing to update Fury about what happened but Pepper stays with Morgan and Peter. 

“Are you sure you are both okay?” Pepper asks, again. 

“We are okay,” Peter says when he notices that Pepper’s face is bruised with a gash around her forehead. “Oh, wait your head! Are you hurt?”

Pepper touches the wound with her hand and brushes Peter’s concerns away. “Oh no, don’t worry Ben, it’s just a bruise.”

“You all sacrificed so much to save me,” Peter says to everyone in the room, touched by what they did. “I know your job as Avengers is to save people but you were literally fighting aliens and even with that you all still made sure I was safe.”

“Well, of course,” Bucky says. “You are a special kid. You kinda remind me of a little Steve.”

“Okay, you should get him out of here before something really bad happens,” Karen whispers to Morgan. 

“Relax Karen, everything is under control,” Morgan answers, calmly. “Okay, everybody. It’s been a long hard day and I’m sure Ben has to go now, so, yeah, say your goodbyes and we’ll get going.”

Peter doesn’t know what Morgan is planning, like, is she going to make him sleep on the lab floor until they fix the machine? He can’t exactly go home without it but he better asks later, when the Avengers are not listening.

“Oh, really?” Pepper says, looking disappointed. “Do you have to go now?”

“Yes mom,” Morgan says. 

“I mean, it’s getting kinda late and we have a lot of room in the tower and I’m sure Ben could stay the night.”

“Mom, maybe some other time, okay?” Morgan rushes to get Peter out of there, her mom looks strangely attached to Peter and that shouldn’t happen.

“Okay,” Pepper says, looking defeated. “But anytime you want to come over, you just come over, Ben, you hear me?”

“Mom,” Morgan says, trying to stop her mom from saying anything else. She can’t give Peter ideas of coming back here. 

“The truth is that we loved having you Ben” Pepper keeps saying. “And thank you for saving Morgan.”

“We really have to go now…” Morgan rushes. 

“No, no you don’t,” Pepper says. “You have to stay, I mean, who could be a better family for you than us? We can help you with your super strength and with your inventions and I mean, what do you say, Ben? Do you want to join our family?”

All the Avengers look surprised by the sudden invitation but they all nod at the idea. They all like Ben, he is smart, kind, sweet, and loving. Only Loki has a raised eyebrow at the thought of Peter staying since this is not his right time to be here. 

“What?” Peter asks. This is the first time in his life someone says that to him. This is what he has always dreamed of. “Really? You… you want to adopt me?” He looks at Morgan and she looks petrified, with her eyes wide open, caught by surprise like she doesn’t know what to say or do.

Peter nods almost imperceptibly, filled with emotion and happiness. There is a family that wants him. The Avengers behind him cheer and Pepper goes to hug him again. 

Morgan doesn’t know what to do, so without any other ideas, she takes off Peter’s glasses and cap. Everyone looks at her weirdly, like they don’t know why she just did that, except Natasha, who stays looking carefully at Peter, then she takes a deep breath and steps forward. 

“Morgan, what did you do?” She asks seriously.

“Uh, well.” Morgan hesitates.

“What do you mean?” Pepper asks, not sure what her daughter was supposed to have done. 

“Take off the contact lenses” She demands. 

Peter takes a deep breath. Natasha figured him out. Morgan outed him as well but still. Knowing the secret is probably out and that it will not take long for the rest to catch up to what is going on, so he takes off the contact lenses.

Everyone sees him without any disguise and immediately their eyes lit up in recognition. 

“Oh my god.” Pepper says, surprised. “Peter?”

“Yeah.” He says, sheepishly. “Wait, how do you know my name?”

“You brought him from the past!??” Bruce exclaims. 

“Yeah,” Morgan says, defeated. 

“Okay, it’s true, I’m from the past,” Peter admits. “That was the big secret.”

“Morgan, what have you done?” Rhodey asks still in shock. “How could you bring _him,_ here?”

“That is an excellent question.” Morgan starts to say, “Uh-”

“Please, don’t be mad at Morgan, she was just being a good friend.” Peter defends. 

“Peter. I am so sorry.” Pepper starts. “But you have to go.”

“What? But you just said-” 

“I know- I know what I just said.” Pepper continues. “But you can’t stay here.”

“I’m from the past,” Peter says. “So what?”

“Peter, listen to me,” Pepper says carefully, gently grabbing his face and lifting his chin. “You are an amazing kid and we would never do anything to hurt you but- I’m sorry, you have to go to your own time.”

He can’t believe it. He was so close. This was the closest he has ever been to getting adopted. And by a perfect family. He feels his hopes and dreams chatter. Literally, everyone has rejected him his entire life. And now even the Avengers don’t want to be near him, he doesn’t belong anywhere, all that matters to them is that he is not supposed to be here and they are sending him back to his time.

“Yeah, about that…” Morgan sheepishly starts. “One of the time machines is broken and the other one was stolen but a guy in a bowler hat, which kind of explains the Chitauri aliens from 2012.”

Pepper just stares at her, not capable of processing what her daughter just did. She thought that only Tony and Peter did reckless and careless things, but now Morgan has joined them too. “I’m calling your father.”

“Wait,” Peter stops her. “If I have to leave, can I at least go back and find my mom? Morgan promised me that if I helped her with the broken time machine she would take me to see her.”

Pepper stops walking and slowly turns towards Morgan. “YOU PROMISED HIM WHAT?” 

“I was never gonna do that, I swear!” Morgan rushes to reassure her mom, noticing too late Peter is right next to her and she just slipped she was never going to keep her promise.

Peter stays staring at her, feeling betrayed. “So you lied to me?” Peter asks.

“No!” Morgan says, “I mean, yes, but listen, Peter-” 

But Peter isn’t listening to her anymore, he started walking to the elevator and away from the tower. 

“I’m such an idiot.” He mumbles to himself. “Of course she wasn’t going to keep her promise. I don’t know why I trusted her.”

“Peter!” Morgan screams. “Peter, wait, please, wait!”

Peter turns around just for a moment before he reaches the elevator, stepping in it before it closes. “I can’t believe I was dumb enough to actually believe that you were my friend!” 

“I am your friend!” Morgan exclaims, trying to go after him but it’s too late. 

She turns around, seeing all the angry faces around her, mostly her mom’s.

“Oh, little miss. You are grounded for eternity. Wait until I tell your father and brother about this.”

◌ ◌ ◌

Peter runs away from the tower, hiding in a nearby alley. He stops to take a breath and gather his emotions and he starts crying. He feels hurt and upset that he has once again lost the chance to have a family to call his own. He trusted Morgan but she never planned to keep her promise, and then, for the first time in his life, a family wanted to adopt him and that was ruined too. Nothing could ever work for him. 

“Yes, Doris, it is a shame.” A voice says behind him and Peter frowns. “He just wants to go back in time and meet his mother.”

“What? Who is there?” Peter can feel a tingle in the back of his head but he ignores it, searching for the origin of the voice. 

“They won’t let him do it… but we would, wouldn’t we Doris?”

“Who are you?” 

The voice steps into the light, revealing a figure with brown skin and a bowler hat sitting in what looks similar to the broken time machine at the tower. Despite never seeing him before, Peter knows this must be the bowler hat guy Morgan was talking about.

“Bowler hat guy?” Peter asks. “You are the one who stole the other time machine.”

“Hello Peter.” The man says. 

“What do you want?”

“I want to help you. I can take you back in time to see your mother.” The man says, “All you have to do is fix this little broken device,” He says, gesturing to Peter’s broken memory scanner. 

“Hey, where did you get that?”

“So what do you say?” He says, ignoring Peter’s question. “Do we have a deal?”

Peter is not sure, the guy is promising the same Morgan did, and maybe he won’t keep his word. But, unlike Morgan, the man has a working time machine, he just needs to put the date and synchronize it with the GPS watch and he could go. All he has to do is put back together his stupid scanner and that’s it. 

Before he answers, he hears Morgan calling for him in the distance. She must be looking for him. He has to make a choice now. 

“Peter! I know you can hear me! I know you are around here somewhere” Morgan says. “Let’s just talk about this. I didn’t mean to break our promise.”

She steps into the alley and sees Peter standing a few feet away from the bowler hat guy with the other time machine. He is extending his hand towards Peter, inviting him in. Morgan knows he must have tried to make Peter help him by promising something. 

“Don’t do it, Peter.” Morgan pleads. 

But Peter has made his choice. Morgan had her chance to help him and she never planned on keeping her promise. It’s too late now. 

He takes the man’s hand and steps into the time machine with the bowler hat guy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!! 
> 
> I hope you liked it and I wish you all a happy 2021.


	9. Little announcement

Hii everyone! 🤗

I'm sorry this is not a new chapter. I've been working on this fic but i also started classes for my new semester at college so i've been really busy. Looking at my schedule i realize it might take a while before i'm able to write and finish the next chapter so i won't update in the next few weeks so... i'm just writing this to let you guys know. I promise i will continue to write whenever i can. I won't abandon this story and i will finish it!! I just want to take my time to do it properly. 

So thank you for all your patience and your support, it really means a lot to me. Until next time 💕

**Author's Note:**

> So I hope you enjoyed it :) 
> 
> I'll try to post a chapter every couple of weeks. Let me know what you think or what you would like to see. Leave a comment or kudos if you liked it! 
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


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